Benign and Malignant Skin Lesions Flashcards
What are the risk factors for skin cancer?
- Fair skin
- Occupational sun exposure
- Burning
- Artificial tanning
- Immunosuppressive medication (e.g. transplant)
- ?Genetics
Clinical case:
- 76 year old man attending cardiology clinic.
- Longstanding crusty area on chest.
- Intermittently bleeding and slowly enlarging.
Describe the lesion and formulate a management plan.
- Basal cell carcinoma
- Superficial and nodular components
- Large incisional biopsy to confirm histology
- Planned 2nd stage incision
Clinical case:
- Acute sunburn
- ‘Rash’ on the back
Describe the lesion and formulate a management plan.
- Basal cell carcinoma with infiltrative pattern.
- Full excision via plastic surgeons.
Describe basal cell carcinoma.
- Commonest type of skin cancer.
- Nodulocystic / infiltrative / superficial.
- Related to UV exposure.
- Slow growing with minimal chance of metastasis.
- Can erode deeper under surface of skin.
- Surgical vs medical therapies.
What are the treatments for BCC?
- Surgery, including Mohs micrographic surgery.
- Cryotherapy
- Imiquimod
- Photodynamic therapy
- Vismodegib - systemic treatment for metastatic or inoperable BCC.
What are the differential diagnoses if you are considering BCC?
- Fibrous papule of the nose.
- Sebaceous hyperplasia.
- Intradermal naevus.
- Haemangioma.
Clinical case:
- 88 year old lady
- Fleshy nodules over dorsal hand
- Spent many years in Malta
- Fair-skinned
Describe the lesion and formulate a management plan.
- Squamous cell carcinomas
- Wider excision +/- grafting by plastics.
Clinical case:
- 76 year old man.
- Previous merkel cell cancer left arm.
- 12 week hx of enlargin nodule.
- Tender and bleeding.
- Patient on Warfarin.
Describe the lesion and state what you would do with it.
- Another Merkel cell carcinoma.
- Remove under local anaesthetic.
Describe squamous cell carcinoma.
- Also driven by UV exposure.
- Less common than BCC.
- Small risk of metastases - mainly lymph nodes.
-
High risk SCC should be discussed at MDT.
- Site and size
- Immunosuppression
- Poorly differentiated
- Perineural / lymphovascular invasion
- Consideration of excision margin
- Radiotherapy
Describe the managemen of SCC in the immunosuppressed.
- Azathioprine / cyclosporin
- Increased risk of SCC
- Reversal of BCC / SCC ratio
- Automatically classified as ‘high risk’
- Liasion with other clinicians ? Reduce immunosuppression
- ?Acitretin
What is the primary aim of treating Actinic Keratosis (AK)?
What are the treatment options?
- The primary aim of treating AK is to reduce the total number of lesions that the patient has at any one time; the fewer lesions a patient has, the less risk they have for developing a SCC.
- Can be treated with lesion-directed therapy, field-directed therapy or a combination of the 2.
With respect to Actinic Keratosis (AK), what is ‘the field’?
- The field is the skin surrounding the AK lesion, which may also have been damaged by UV exposure.
- Often the surrounding skin is red, with tiny, thread-like blood vessels (telangiectasias) indicating sun damage.
- Sometimes the surrounding skin does not have visible changes but is highly likely to have been exposed to the same amount of UV as the visible AK lesion and its cells may also be genetically damaged.
What are the options for topical therapy in AK?
- Solaraze gel (diclofenac)
- Efudix (5-fluorouracil) cream
- Picanto gel (ingenol mebutate)
- Actikerall ointment (fluorouracil + salicylic acid)
- Cryotherapy remains useful for single lesions
- Curettage and cautery if recalcitrant to treatment-obtains histology
Clinical case:
- 48 year old male
- Sunburnt back in youth
- Shirt sticking to back
Describe the lesions and formulate a management plan.
- 2 primary malignant melanomas
- Nodular (amelanotic)
- Superficial spreading
- Wide local excision and sentinel lymph node biopsy (clear)
- Sun protection advice
- Long-term follow up for 5 years
What is an ink spot lentigo?
- AKA ‘sunburn’ lentigo
- Dark brown macule with reticular pigment network
- Often on shoulders / upper back