The Evaluation of Skin Cancer Profile in Fatmawati Hospital Centre

Abstract

Cancer is a group of diseases characterized by uncontrolled growth of abnormal cell.¹ Cancer is one of the highest causes of death in the world, about 13% of all deaths in 2008.² Skin cancer is one of the most common malignancies in humans.³ One of the biggest risk factors for skin cancer is sunlight.^4,5 Skin cancers occur on every surface of the body, but most occur in sun-exposed.^3,5,6 such as the head and face area, limb and back^3,7, about 95% occur in sun-exposed location.¹

Broadly, skin cancer is divided into two name, non-malignant and malignant skin cancer.^5,8 Non-melanoma skin cancer is divided into two, basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC).^5,6,8 Basal cell carcinoma is the most common malignancy in Europe, USA, Australia, United States, and United Kingdom, followed by squamous cell carcinoma in Africa and Asia.^6,9,10

Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in United States¹¹, whereas in Indonesia skin cancer including 10 major cancers, the third rank after breast cancer and cervical.¹² This is because Indonesia is a tropical country that is passed by the equator and receives plenty of sunlight. Data on skin cancer in Indonesia is difficult to obtain because many patients with skin cancers are treated outside of the medical, so only partial can be registered where skin cancer is the highest malignancy in males with 17.4% of frequency, whereas in malignant groups in women and men, this disorder occupied the third highest incidence rate with 11.5% of occurrence. Most skin malignancies (89.5%) are basalioma and squamous cell carcinoma, while malignant melanoma ranks third with an 8.5% of all skin malignancies.¹³

With early diagnosis and adequate surgical treatment, it will have a good prognosis. Signs and symptoms of skin cancer are necessary to be popularized, so that general practitioners who are at the end of public service can recognize it well and can refer appropriately.⁵

Despite the facts, the authors are interested to conduct a research on the incidence of skin cancer in Indonesia, by collecting samples in Fatmawati Hospital Centre. It is chosen because it is one of the educated hospital reference type A in Indonesia, so it is expected to represent the population of skin cancer in Indonesia. In addition, this scientific work is one of the academic requirements to obtain a bachelor degree in medicine.