Abstract

We report on the case of a 65-year-old man with basal cell carcinoma (BCC). He had noticed a wound on the right side of his chin about one and a half years before. We diagnosed it incorrectly as eczema at his first visit. Seven months later the patient revisited our outpatient clinic. He had a poorly demarcated plaque on his right chin and also had a small black nodule on his right cheek. Both lesions were excised and histopathological analysis confirmed him to have BCC.
A total of 108 BCCs in 97 patients (51 males and 46 females) were treated over a period of 12 years from 1985 to 1996 in the Department of Dermatology, Nippon Medical School Hospital. 1) Approximately 0.11 % of all the outpatients had BCC. 2) The age of these patients ranged from 18 to 89 years and the age peak was in the 6th decades in both sexes. 3) Approximately 77 % of the carcinomas developed on the head, face and neck. 4) A solid-type BCC was observed in 80 % of cases. 5) Nine cases (10.5 %) that were initially diagnosed as other tumors proved to be BCC upon histopathological examination.