Prevalence of Squamous and Basal Cell Carcinomas in African Albino Skin Cancer Lesions: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Proportion

Abstract

Context. Keratinocyte carcinomas are the most common malignant condition in Caucasian populations. African albinos have hypomelanized sensitive skin that is quite susceptible to photocarcinogenesis. Of the keratinocyte carcinomas, squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) has been found more frequent in pigmented Africans, while basal cell carcinoma (BCC) predominates in Caucasians. While some studies report a preponderance of SCC over BCC in African albinos, congruent with the situation in pigmented Africans, other reports have found BCCs to be more frequent and consistent with the pattern in Caucasians. Objective. To estimate the prevalence of cutaneous SCC and BCC in all histologically confirmed skin cancer lesions in African albinos.The following five databases are as follows: African Journals Online (AJOL), PubMed, Europe PMC, and Google Scholar were searched for relevant articles. Study Selection: included studies were case series and cross-sectional studies of histologically confirmed skin cancers in African albinos. Data extraction and synthesis: data extraction and synthesis was informed by the meta-analysis of observational studies in epidemiology guideline. By random effect meta-analysis, we calculated the pooled prevalence of SCC and BCC in skin cancer lesions of the African albinos. Result. We abstracted 695 skin cancer lesions from 540 African albinos (275 male and 241 female albinos with sex not stated in 24 subjects). There were 419 SCCs and 249 BCCs. By meta-analysis, the pooled prevalence of SCC is 64% (95% CI; 50–77%). The prevalence for BCC is 31% (95% CI; 19–45%). Conclusion. Overall, squamous cell carcinoma is the predominant type of keratinocyte carcinoma reported in African albinos. SCC is preponderant in case series of surgical excision biopsies while BCC predominates in studies reporting on albino skin surveillance programmes.