Sensitivity, predictive values, pretest-posttest probabilities, and likelihood ratios of presurgery clinical diagnosis of nonmelanoma skin cancers.
BACKGROUND
The precision of clinical diagnosis of skin tumors is not commonly measured and, therefore, very little is known about the diagnostic ability of clinicians.


OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to compare clinical and histopathologic diagnoses of nonmelanoma skin cancers with regard to sensitivity, predictive values, pretest-posttest probabilities, and likelihood ratios.


METHODS
Two hundred nineteen patients with 241 nonmelanoma skin cancers were enrolled in this study. Of these patients, 49.4% were female and 50.6% were male. The mean age ± standard deviation (SD) was 63.66 ± 16.44 years for the female patients and 64.77 ± 14.88 years for the male patients. The mean duration of the lesions was 20.90 ± 32.95 months. One hundred forty-eight (61.5%) of the lesions were diagnosed as basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and 93 (38.5%) were diagnosed as squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) histopathologically.


RESULTS
Sensitivity, positive predictive value, and posttest probability were calculated as 75.96%, 87.77%, and 87.78% for BCC and 70.37%, 37.25%, and 37.20% for SCC, respectively. The correlation between clinical and histopathologic diagnoses was found to be higher in BCC.


CONCLUSIONS
Knowledge of sensitivity, predictive values, likelihood ratios, and posttest probabilities may have implications for the management of skin cancers. To prevent unnecessary surgeries and achieve high diagnostic accuracies, multidisciplinary approaches are recommended.
Ermertcan
Aylin Türel
AT
Department of Dermatology, Celal Bayar University, Faculty of Medicine, Manisa, Turkey. draylinturel@hotmail.com
Oztürk
Ferdi
F
Gençoğlan
Gülsüm
G
Eskiizmir
Görkem
G
Temiz
Peyker
P
Horasan
Gönül Dinç
GD
D000368:Aged; D002280:Basal Cell Carcinoma / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015510:Clinical Medicine / Q000379:methods; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D003955:Diagnostic Tests, Routine / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011336:Probability; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*