Basal Cell Carcinoma
Clinical
Well-delineated, pearly, translucent, pink-tan papules or nodules with telangiectasia
Superficial, nodular/ulcerative, pigmented, diffuse,
morpheaform and fibroepitheliomatous variants exist
Most are found on sun-exposed skin of the elderly, but
occasional cases are evident on non-sun-exposed skin
Basal cell carcinoma is currently the most common
cutaneous malignancy, and the incidence is increasing
Risk of developing basal cell carcinomas is related to
sun-exposure and skin type
Multiple tumors are seen in Basex syndrome and basal
cell carcinoma- nevus syndrome (Gorlin’s syndrome),
an autosomal dominant inherited disease also having
odontogenic keratocysts, palmar-plantar pits, ectopic
calcification and skeletal abnormalities
Basal cell carcinoma has little tendency to metastasize
Microscopic
A proliferation of atypical basaloid cells in nests,
trabeculae and/or cysts within the dermis but often
demonstrating multifocal epidermal attachment
Peripheral palisading, stromal retraction, mucin deposi-
tion, single cell necrosis and mitoses are characteristic
and are useful in separating this tumor from other
entities
Nodulocystic, metatypical (keratotic), pigmented,
adenoidal, infiltrating, superficial and morpheaform
histologic variants exist with the latter two having an
increased risk of recurrence