6 benign features of facial lesions

What features characterise facial lesions as benign? In this latest skin cancer update video, Professor Giuseppe Argenziano describes the specific criteria for benign lesions on the face, including clinical and dermoscopic characteristics, with real patient examples.

For further information on this topic, you may be interested to learn more about the HealthCert Professional Diploma program in Dermoscopy, providing tailored medical dermoscopy training online for GPs.

In last month's skin cancer update, Prof Argenziano discussed how to diagnose flat facial lesions. In this latest update, he describes the six features of benign facial lesions, including:

1. Scales
2. White follicles or rosettes
3. Erythema or reticular vessels
4. Reticular lines / fingerprints
5. Sharp demarcation
6. Classic SK criteria

Prof Argenziano says that when assessing facial lesions, if we can't identify one or more of these features, then we must be suspicious for malignancy and conduct further investigations.

Prevalent benign pattern = Benign

No prevalent benign pattern = Suspicious

He explores several examples of real patients from his practice, talking through the clinical and dermoscopic features that identify the facial lesions as either benign or malignant based on the six aforementioned features.

Prof Argenziano explains specificity and sensitivity of this method for diagnosing both actinic keratosis and solar lentigo. He says he has been using this approach in his own practice for several years.

See all this and much more in the full video below!

Watch the full video now:

For further information on this topic, you may be interested to learn more about the HealthCert Professional Diploma program in Dermoscopy, providing tailored medical dermoscopy training online for GPs.

Prof Giuseppe Argenziano is Professor and Head of the Dermatology Unit at the University of Campania, Naples, Italy; Co-founder and past president of the International Dermoscopy Society; and Editor-in-Chief of Dermatology Practical and Conceptual Journal. His main research field is dermato-oncology, authoring numerous scientific articles and books concerning dermoscopy, melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer. As coordinator of the Melanoma Unit at the Campania University, he has established a successful tertiary, multidisciplinary, referral center particularly devoted to the diagnosis and management of patients with melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer.

Over the past 25 years, Prof Argenziano has supervised over 500 foreign and Italian residents in dermatology, established scientific collaborations with 1500+ colleagues from more than 50 nations, and organised more than 500 national and international didactic meetings, courses and conferences (such as the Consensus Net Meeting on Dermoscopy and the First Congress of the International Dermoscopy Society).

Prof Argenziano has authored more than 650 full scientific articles and produced landmark primary publications and books in the field of melanoma and dermoscopy. Over the past 25 years he has been invited as speaker and/or chairman in more than 500 national and international conferences in the field of dermatology. His combined publications have received a sum total of 15.250+ citations with an h-index value of 61 (Scopus 2020).