Determining the Demographic and Histopathological Pattern of Basal Cell Carcinoma in the Pathology Laboratories of Babol University of Medical Sciences from 2013 to 2020

Basal cell carcinoma is the most common human malignancy that has been increasing in recent years. The aim of this study is to determine the demographic and histopathological pattern of this malignancy in the pathology departments of state hospitals in Babol from 2013 to 2020.

In this retrospective study, after reviewing the existing files with the final diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma from 2013 to 2020, the patients' information including age, gender, lesion location and microscopic subgroup were recorded and analyzed.

In this study, 367 cases were obtained from Shahid Beheshti and Shahid Yahyanejad Hospitals in Babol with the diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma. The mean age of people in both genders was 67±10.89 years. 69% of the samples were men and 31% were women (p<0.001). The highest frequency was from the scalp area (134 samples) and the lowest frequency was related to the chest (3 samples). The most common histopathology subtype was nodular type and the rarest types were metatypical and clear cell carcinoma. A statistically significant relationship was observed between the location of the sample and gender (p=0.023); the cheek in men and the nose in women were more common than the other gender. The highest incidence was seen in 2017 with 83 cases, which was a significant increase compared to the previous year.

Based on the results of this study, the high incidence of basal cell carcinoma in the head and face area of elderly people, especially men, reveals the need to inform high-risk communities and to be more familiar with therapists, especially dentists who are in close eye contact with the face.