Abstract:
Background: Skin cancer is a major global public health problem and the incidence has been
increasing at an alarming rate worldwide. In our country the incidence of skin cancer is unknow
due to very few researches are done on skin cancer.
Objective: To determine histopathologic patterns of skin cancer in Jimma Medical Center,2022.
Method and materials: A retrospective cross-sectional study was done for all cases with
histologically diagnosed skin cancer at the Jimma university medical center between August
2018 and August 2022. Data was entered into Epi data version 3.1and analyzed by SPSS version
20. For all statistical significance tests, p<0.05 and AOR with 95% CI were used. Descriptive
and analytic studies were done. Cross tabulation and logistic regression with multivariate
analysis were done to identify independent predictor factors and determine the association
between variables.
Results: Among a total of 548 skin biopsies, 207 cases were skin cancer constituting 37.8% of
all skin lesions with biopsy request form completeness rate of 91.2%. The majority of skin
cancer occurred on the 7th decade 49 (23.7%) followed by 6th decade 47 (22.7%) with male to
female ratio of 1: 1.1 and mean age of 50 ± 16.1. The commonest site for skin cancer was lower
extremity 113 (54.6%) and ulceration 162 (78.3%) was the most common presenting symptom.
Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) 98 (47.3%) was the commonest skin cancer followed by
cutaneous melanoma (CM) 50 (24.2%) and DFSP 19 (9.2%). Using lower extremity as reference
group, head and neck skin cancer cases had AOR of 6.03 being diagnosed as NMSC (CI: 2.23-
16.31, P= 0.000) and trunk skin cancer cases had AOR of 9.204 (CI: 1.16- 73, p= 0.036) being
diagnosed as NMSC.
Conclusion: NMSC was 3 times more common than MSC and squamous cell carcinoma is the
most common skin cancer followed by cutaneous melanoma. Skin cancer was commonly seen in
7
th and 6th. Decades. Lower extremity was the most common site of involvement, further studies
needed to determine predisposing risk factors. NMSC and MSC were associated with anatomic
site warrants further study.
