Background: The incidence of scalp tumors has increased, despite medical advances and environmental improvement. However, few studies have reported the clinical and histopathologic features of scalp tumors.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical and histopathologic features of scalp tumors.
Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the clinical and histopathologic features and occurrence rates of scalp diseases in 418 patients whose lesions were biopsied in the department of dermatology between January 2004 and December 2013.
Results: The mean age of patients exhibiting scalp tumors was 44.9 years old. The male to female ratio was 1:0.69. The most common benign scalp tumor diagnosed was seborrheic keratosis (22.6%) followed by epidermal inclusion cyst (15.3%), intradermal nevus (8.7%), sebaceous nevus (7.1%), actinic keratosis (5.2%), pyogenic granuloma (3.0%), neurofibroma (2.5%), compound nevus (2.2%), epidermal nevus (1.1%), dermatofibroma (1.1%), and hemangioma (1.1%). The most malignant scalp tumor diagnosed was basal cell carcinoma (34.6%) followed by squamous cell carcinoma (32.7%), metastatic cancer (11.5%), angiosarcoma (7.7%), Bowen’s disease (7.7%), lymphoma (3.8%), and apocrine adenocarcinoma (1.9%).
Conclusion: This study provides data on the incidence of scalp tumors. The results of our study were different from previous studies possibly owing to regional differences between reported patient populations. We advise physicians to appropriately diagnose and treat scalp tumors at the earliest suspicion of malignancy.
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