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Skin cancer-associated genodermatoses in skin of color patients: a review

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Abstract

Skin cancers are associated with a large number of genodermatoses. Existing knowledge and guidelines on the presentations of these genodermatoses focus disproportionately on White patients. Our goal is to identify notable characteristics in location, frequency, and severity of cutaneous findings along with the median age of skin cancers in skin-of-color (SOC) patients with skin-cancer-associated genodermatoses to improve diagnosis rates. We searched for genodermatoses on six databases. Each case report or case series was reviewed, including reports, published in English, containing adult patient descriptions. Duplicate manuscripts were removed using EndNote. The following case-level data were collected from the manuscripts: age, gender, patient country or region of origin, author country/continent of residence, skin cancer-related, and other key dermatologic features. 381 published articles, with a total of 578 SOC patients, met criteria for inclusion. SOC patients can present with fewer classic findings, such as a lower incidence of basal cell carcinomas (44%) in SOC Gorlin syndrome patients than palmar pits (66%) and mandibular cysts (66%). Differences between SOC populations were also noted, such as leukoplakia being more common in Asian dyskeratosis congenita patients (80%) in comparison to African dyskeratosis congenita patients (44%). SOC patients also have varying onset of skin cancer depending on the genodermatosis, from a median of 25 years of age in Rothmund-Thomson syndrome to 53 in Muir-Torre syndrome. In this review, SOC patients with genodermatoses can have varying presentations. Being cognizant of these characteristics may lead to earlier diagnosis and interventions to mitigate skin-cancer-related morbidity in SOC patients.

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Data availability

The case reports and manuscripts that support the findings of this review are available on request from the corresponding author [S.F.].

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  1. Boston University School of Medicine, 72 E Concord St, Boston, MA, 02118, USA

    Sherwin Fazelpour

  2. Tufts Medical Center, 800 Washington St, Boston, MA, 02111, USA

    Sandhya Chowdary Deverapalli & Bichchau Nguyen

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S.F. wrote the main manuscript text S.D. contributed to editing the manuscript text B.N. originated the aim of the manuscript and led the editing of the manuscript text

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Fazelpour, S., Deverapalli, S.C. & Nguyen, B. Skin cancer-associated genodermatoses in skin of color patients: a review. Arch Dermatol Res 316, 282 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00403-024-03087-w

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