Diagnosing skin malignancy: assessment of predictive clinical criteria and risk factors.

Expect to encounter 6 to 7 cases of basal cell cancer, 1 to 2 cases of squamous cell cancer, and approximately 1 case of melanoma every year. There is good evidence for using the American Cancer Society's ABCDE criteria as a clinical diagnostic test to rule out malignant melanoma). The revised 7-point checklist has high sensitivity and is therefore useful for ruling out a diagnosis of malignant melanoma. However, its low specificity yields many false-positive results. The gold standard for diagnosis of skin malignancies is a tissue biopsy. If any doubt exists about the diagnosis, a biopsy should be performed.