title: Nonpigmented skin lesions - how many are nonmelanoma skin cancer?
abstract: 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.
  
  
  METHODS
  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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Medical practitioners are efficient in their management of nonpigmented skin lesions in both primary and secondary care.
authors.affiliation: Discipline of General Practice, University of Tasmania. kristyf@bigpond.com
authors.forename: Kristen L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: FitzGerald
authors.forename: Petra G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Buttner
authors.forename: Shaun A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Donovan
mesh_terms: D001706:Biopsy / Q000379:methods; D002280:Basal Cell Carcinoma / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007642:Keratosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008511:Medicine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology; D013038:Specialization; D013648:Tasmania / Q000453:epidemiology