SOLITARY CUTANEOUS NEOPLASMS: ANALYSING THE UNCERTAIN BEHAVIOUR WITH THE AID OF HISTOPATHOLOGY

INTRODUCTION: Skin tumours can be benign or malignant, resulting from proliferation of one or more skin constituents. The incidence of skin cancer has increased over last few decades, necessitating histopathological evidence to distinguish between them. OBJECTIVES: To describe epidemiology, clinical presentation, uncertain behaviour and histopathological spectrum of various skin tumours. METHODOLOGY: Present study is a prospective study conducted over a period of four years from July 2019 to July 2023 in the Out-patient Department of DVL, Government General Hospital, Anantapur. Cystic and infectious swellings and patients having multiple lesions and patients who didn’t consent for this study are excluded. All excisional biopsies of solitary cutaneous swellings are sent for Histopathological confirmation and tumours are categorised based on WHO classification. RESULTS: The study has 123 solitary cutaneous tumours, out of which, 98 cases (79.67%) were benign and 25(20.32%) are malignant. Adults aged 26-44 years are most affected (31.7%) followed by middle aged (30.08%).Males are 57(46.34%) and females are 66(53.65%).Extremities constituted the most common site with 53 cases (43.08%) followed by head and neck (29.26%). According to WHO classification of skin tumours, subcutaneous tissue tumours accounted for 42 cases (34.14%) followed by 31 cases(25.20%) of soft tissue tumours. Keratinocyte tumours are 26(21.13%), appendageal tumours are 16(13%) and least common are melanocytic and neural tumours with 4(3.25%) and 4(3.25%) respectively. Majority of benign tumours originated from subcutaneous tissues, while malignant developed from keratinocytic differentiation. CONCLUSION: In our study, most tumours had ambiguous clinical behaviour, which resulted in misdiagnosis; hence, histopathological confirmation is essential for accurate diagnosis and prompt management.