Skin Cancer in the Incarcerated Population—A Single-Center Study

The incarcerated population may have variable access to specialty care that may affect the detection and diagnosis of skin cancer. The purpose of the study was to characterize skin cancers in the incarcerated population and determine time to treatment initiation (TTI) after biopsy. A retrospective cohort study was performed using data from a single-center referral hospital of incarcerated patients with biopsy-proven basal cell carcinoma (BCC), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), or melanoma between January 2009 and December 2019. The main outcome measured was TTI after biopsy. One hundred thirteen patients, majority men (96.5%) and of Caucasian race (89.4%), were diagnosed and/or treated for 191 skin cancers. Of these 191 skin cancers, 118 were BCC (61.8%), 58 were SCC (30.4%), and 15 were melanomas (7.9%). The average TTI after biopsy for melanoma was 57 days (range: 21-136, median: 51, 95% confidence interval: 39.89-74.10) with an average Breslow depth of 1.57 mm. The average TTI of melanoma in the incarcerated population in this study was greater than 30 days, which may have increased mortality risk.