Nonpigmented skin lesions, how many are nonmelanoma skin cancer?

BACKGROUND: Nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) is the most common cancer in Australia and thus the most costly to treat. Despite the high prevalence of NMSC, little is known about the rate of malignancy in excised or biopsied nonpigmented lesions. METHOD: An audit of 912 reports relating to nonpigmented skin samples from 749 patients processed during January 2005 in Tasmania. RESULTS: Nonmelanoma skin cancer was present in 60.6% of samples from specialists and 44.5% from nonspecialists/primary care doctors (p<0.001); 1.6 skin lesions were excised or biopsied in order to identify one malignant or pre-invasive lesion (1.3 for specialists and 1.7 for nonspecialists). The number of NMSCs increased with age and were more common in men. DISCUSSION: Medical practitioners are efficient in their management of nonpigmented skin lesions in both primary and secondary care.