Dermoscopy of keratinocyte skin cancer

Abstract

Keratinocyte skin cancer (KSC) refers to a broad class of tumors with a regrettably rising incidence worldwide. The term KSC stands for different stages of skin cancer including actinic keratosis (AK), Bowen's Disease (BD) and invasive squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). These tumors tend to grow slow, are unlikely to result in distant metastatic disease and death but they frequently destroy underlying tissues and should therefore be removed at the earliest possible stage. The fact that the cure rate is very high when KSC is detected in early stages emphasizes once more the applicability of dermoscopy as an integrative part of the clinical examination of skin tumors. In the first part of this review article, we summarize key points of the dermoscopic diagnosis of KSC including different stages of AK, BD and SCC. In the second part we want to focus on the progression model of KSC and the role of dermoscopy in the management of keratinocyte skin cancer.