The accuracy of clinical diagnosis of suspected premalignant and malignant skin lesions in renal transplant recipients

Renal transplant recipients have a greatly increased risk of nonmelanoma skin cancer. We investigated the accuracy of diagnosis of suspected skin malignancies in this population by prospectively recording all lesions detected in a specialist clinic over 5 months and comparing the provisional diagnosis with the histological diagnosis. The diagnostic accuracy was 54% in the 102 lesions that were biopsied, with the highest accuracy for the head and neck (67%). The diagnostic accuracy for squamous cell carcinoma was 48.7% (sensitivity 90.5%, specificity 75.3%) and for basal cell carcinoma 40.0% (sensitivity 66.6%, specificity 85.6%). The overall low accuracy rate implies the need for biopsy of any suspicious lesions in the renal transplant population.