Introduction:

Solid basal cell carcinoma is the most frequent tumor of the skin with a limited degree of malignancy that rarely metastasizes, despite the fact that more and more people suffering from this type of cancer are being detected, which indicates a failure in its diagnosis and timely treatment. The morphometric studies are necessary due to the value they bring to the histological diagnosis and prognosis of the disease.

Objective:

To describe the behavior of morphometric indicators such as nuclear area, nuclear volume and nuclear shape factor of tumor cells from solid basal cell carcinoma.

Methods:

A study was carried out on a series of cases of 7 patients diagnosed with solid basal cell carcinoma of the skin from September 2018 to September 2019 in the province of Holguín. 300 fields were selected and 1 777 cell nuclei were averaged, which constituted the sample. Nuclear morphometric indicators such as area, volume and shape factor were characterized. Theoretical and empirical methods were used, the latter fundamentally based on morphometric techniques.

Results:

The arithmetic average of the nuclear area is 130 µm2 and of the nuclear volume is 923 µm3, both are increased if compared to other studies carried out on healthy, aged skin. The nuclear form factor is 0.77, it approaches the value 1 for that reason the pleomorphism is low in the basal cell carcinoma.

Conclusions:

The tumoral cells in solid basal cell carcinoma of the skin are characterized by presenting nuclei that show a low pleomorphism and a large volume, larger than in malignant melanoma, even smaller than in normal skin of people older than 40 years.

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