Background: Skin cancers are the most frequent types of all malignant tumours with increasing incidence rates worldwide.
Objectives: This study aimed to analyze the clinical–pathological characteristics of skin cancers in patients visited at the Department of Dermatology of the Fifth People's Hospital of Hainan Province from China during the last 12 years.
Methods: The hospital database was searched for patients with skin cancers over a period of 12 years ( from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2020) , and a retrospective review was conducted and a descriptive data analysis was undertaken on patients.
Results: A total of 755 specimens of skin cancers were confirmed during this period, of which 696 (92.19%) were common skin cancers and of which 59(7.81%) were rare skin cancers. The incidence is on the rise year by year, with a marked decline in 2020. The common skin cancers were basal cell carcinoma (341, 48.99%), followed by squamous cell carcinoma (148 , 21.26%) and Bowen’s disease (109, 15.66%) . The range of age at the time of skin cancers was from 40 to 79 years (73.01% ). Males and females showed an almost similar incidence. The duration ranged from 7 days to 70 years, mainly occurred in 2 years( 53.30% ). The head, face and neck region were the most frequent location (452, 59.87% ), followed by extremity (107, 14.17% ) and trunk (87, 11.52% ). The accordance rates of clinical-pathological diagnosis in common skin cancers was about 43.14% , while that of rare skin cancers such as skin appendages was only 27.59% .
Conclusions: Overall, head, face and neck region was the most common site for sun-related skin cancers in Hainan, China. BCC was the most common skin cancer followed by SCC and Bowen's disease. Moreover, skin cancers has a low coincidence rate of clinical-pathological diagnosis. Consequently, any suspicious lesion, for which the clinical diagnosis is uncertain, should be biopsied for histopathological examination to rule out malignancy.