Skin cancers at the National University Hospital of Cotonou from 1985 to 2004.

BACKGROUND: Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer occurring in adults in Europe and the USA. A low incidence has been reported in the black American population and in Africa, however. This study investigates the incidence of melanoma and epidermoid and basocellular carcinoma at Cotonou in Benin.

METHODS: Over 20 years, 19 patient records were collected, 16 of which were the subject of a retrospective epidemiologic study.

RESULTS: The main characteristic of skin cancer in the Department of Dermatology, Cotonou, Benin was its extreme rarity. The frequency was 0.00066%, with a male to female ratio of 1.28 and a mean age of 54.81 years. The mean ages at diagnosis for epidermoid carcinoma, melanoma, and basocellular carcinoma were 61.66, 59.40, and 54.56 years, respectively. The mean duration of epidermoid carcinoma was 6-10 times longer than that of melanoma and basocellular carcinoma. Of the 16 patients included in the study, five were albinos. In this group, the frequency was 31.25%.

DISCUSSION: The extreme rarity of skin cancers in our series cannot be the result of recruitment bias alone. It reflects the actual situation. All of our cases of melanoma were in a plantar location. This inconsistency with other studies is probably a result of the size of our series. The duration of disease in our cases of carcinoma was comparable with the results obtained in a previous study in Dakar, Senegal. In our study, oculocutaneous albinism was the main preneoplastic factor.

CONCLUSION: This study confirms the low incidence of skin cancer in the black population, the fact that basocellular carcinoma affects a relatively young population, and the predilection of melanoma for acral locations in black individuals.