Overview of basal cell carcinoma risk factors, diagnostic options, conservative and surgical treatment

Eglė Virbickaitė1, Ieva Vaitkevičiūtė2, Eglė Astašauskaitė1

1 Lithuanian University of Health Sciences. Academy of Medicine. Faculty of Medicine.

2Jonavos hospital

ABSTRACT

Basal cell carcinoma is the most common form of non-melanoma skin cancer. The morbidity of this disease increases every year. BCC is slowly progressive and rarely metastatic disease. The main factor of development of disease is the harmful effect of UV radiation. Fair skin type, blond or red hair, blue or green eyes are also involved. Pathogenesis of BCC is characterized by activation of the Hedgehog pathway at mutations in PTCH and SMO. Clinically, BCC mostly occurs in exposed areas of the body – in face and hands. It is diagnosed by using dermatoscopy method, performing skin biopsy and histological examination. In order to predict the tactic of treatment, first of all the recurrence of BCC is determined. Conservative and surgical methods of treatment are available. The prognosis of the disease is positive, the mortality due to BCC occurs rarely.

Keywords: basal cell carcinoma, risk factors, UV radiation, dermatoscopy, biopsy.