Introduction:

in Cuba one of the social demands is the study of skin cancer in the elderly population.

Objective:

to characterize clinical-epidemiological aspects in patients with probable diagnosis of PC admitted in the homes of elderly "Caridad Jaca" and "San José" of the city of Guantánamo during the year 2017.

Method:

an observational, prospective and cross-sectional study was conducted with all the elderly (n = 256) and in those with probable skin cancer (n = 15), age was specified; sex; place of birth, where he lived; personal pathological history; cutaneous type photo; characteristics of the lesion; clinical and dermatoscopic diagnosis.

Results:

skin cancer was diagnosed in 5.9% of the elderly. It was more common in men (53.4%), with 70 to 79 years (53.4%), born or who lived in urban areas and photo cutaneous type III (40.0%). 100.0% was exposed to sunlight, 86.7% without means of photo protection. The cancer was located more in the face (66.7%), had an area less than one centimeter (46.6%), between 3 and 4 years of evolution (60.0%), it was a single lesion (86, 7%) and basal cell carcinoma (46.6%). In 80.0% of the cases, a clinical-dermatoscopic diagnostic correlation was observed.

Conclusions:

the frequency of skin cancer in the elderly was low. However, more attention must be paid to ensure the early diagnosis of this disease.

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