OVERVIEW
This page is dedicated to organizing various examples of standardized exam questions whose answer is basal cell carcinoma. While this may seem a odd practice, it is useful to see multiple examples of how basal cell carcinoma will be characterized on standardized exams (namely the boards and the shelf exams). This page is not meant to be used as a traditional question bank (as all of the answers will be the same), however seeing the classic “test” characterization for a disease is quite valuable.
QUESTION EXAMPLES
Question # 1
A 70 year old Californian farmer of Swedish ancestry has an indolent, raised, waxy, 1.3 cm skin mass over the bridge of the nose. This has been slowly growing over the past four years. There are no enlarged lymph nodes in the head and neck.
Question # 2
A 72 year old Irish man has a non-healing, indolent, punched out ulcer over his right temple. It is about 2.1 cm in size, and has slowly been growing in size over the past 3.5 years. There is no associated lymphadenopathy in the head/neck.
Question # 3
A 70 year old woman has a non healing, punched out, ulcer on her left temple. She works as a farmer in the fields, and has does so all her life. Her past medical history is notable for gout and hypertension, however she does not take medication for either. She explains that the ulcer has been growing slowly for the past 4 years. Her vital are within normal limits. A physical exam is negative for any posterior or anterior chain lymphadenopathy. The rest of her workup is noncontributory.
Page Updated: 03.06.2017