Differentiation between skin cancer and common skin diseases

Skin cancer is a relatively common malignant tumor, and there are many similar skin diseases. Only by correctly distinguishing them can we get the correct treatment.

Early skin cancer often presents as erythematous or papular lesions that are slightly higher than the skin, often with scaly desquamation or crusts on the surface, and the symptoms are very similar to benign skin diseases such as psoriasis, eczema, and inflammation. As the lesion further develops, certain characteristic signs will appear, such as a shiny, translucent papular nodule with bleeding on the surface and telangiectasia; or a scar-like fibrous plaque with a smooth surface, generally without obvious telangiectasia, ulcers, and protrusions; or black, fused dots in the lesion.

These manifestations of skin cancer are very similar to the symptoms of some precancerous lesions such as actinic keratosis and keratoacanthoma, making it difficult to distinguish them.

The erythema of solar keratosis will be attached with some scales, mostly higher than the skin, and the erythema will not become more prominent after the scales fall off; while squamous cell carcinoma in situ appears as small red rashes with clear borders, which is similar to skin cancer, but the latter has more obvious scales and scabs, and the lesions are more substantial.

Keratoacanthoma mainly occurs in parts of the body that are exposed to sunlight. Many red nodules may appear without any signs within 2 to 3 weeks. The surface is smooth, with keratin plugs in the middle of the nodule and dilated capillaries visible on the edge. The surface of squamous cell skin cancer nodules is not smooth and the edges are translucent.