Dermatology Skin Cancer

Question 1

what is the 5 year survival for Breslow thickness <1mm?

Answer 1

95-100%

Question 2

what is the 5 year survival for Breslow thickness >4mm?

Answer 2

50%

Question 3

what is the 5 year survival for when the melanoma has metastases?

Answer 3

5%

Question 4

naevoid basal cell carcinoma (Gorlin’s syndrome) patients at prone to developing non-melanoma skin cancer. describe this syndrome.

Answer 4

Gorlin’s syndrome is an autosomal dominant familial cancer syndrome. There are early onset/ multiple BCCs, palmar pits, jaw cysts, skeletal abnormality, other features…
People with Gorlin’s syndrome are prone to developing non life threatening form of non-melanoma skin cancer

Question 5

people with xeroderma pigmentosum are prone to developing skin cancer. describe this medical condition.

Answer 5

Xeroderma pigmentosum is a rare autosomal recessive genetic disorder in which the ability to repair UV damage is deficient. ALL sunlight exposure is forbidden. Multiple BCCs and other skin malignancies occur at a young age. There is also neurological degeneration.

Question 6

people with oculocutaneous albinism are prone to developing skin cancer. describe this condition.

Answer 6

a form of albinism involving the eyes, skin and hair. Caused by muatations in genes which control synthesis of melanin within melanocytes. There is no protection, which would normally be offered by melanin pigment. - so they get skin cancers.

Question 7

people with recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (butterfly disease) are at risk of developing skin cancer. describe why.

Answer 7

the skin blisters very easily due to a deficiency in anchoring fibrils - impairing the epidermal and dermal adherence. Wounds heal very slowly or not at all, often scarring extensively. The chronic inflammation leads to errors in the DNA of affected cells - which in turn causes SCC. Majority of these patients die before 30yrs of age, either of SCC or complications related to EB.