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Robert S. Stern, MD; Khosrow Momtaz, MD

Arch Dermatol. 1984;120(7):869-873.

Abstract
• Skin typing is a clinical classification system based on a patient's historical reporting of the acute skin response to sunlight. It is advocated as a means of determining an individual's relative risk of skin tumors and has been used to determine the initial therapeutic dose of UV radiation for UV-B phototherapy or oral methoxsalen photochemotherapy (PUVA) for psoriasis. Among PUVA-treated patients, the relative risk of cutaneous carcinoma was significantly higher among patients with skin types I and II compared with patients with skin type IV (3.2 and 2.3, respectively). Skin type was a better predictor of this risk than eye or hair color. The minimal erythemal dose (MErD) and minimal phototoxic dose (MPD) increased with increasing skin type number, but within a given skin type each varied as much as sixfold. Skin type was a good clinical predictor of skin cancer risk, but lacked specificity as a predictor of an individual's MErD or MPD.

(Arch Dermatol 1984;120:869-873)

Author Affiliations
From The Photochemotherapy Follow-up Study and the Department of Dermatology, Massachusetts General Hospital (Dr Momtaz); the Department of Dermatology, the Charles A. Dana Research Institute, and the Harvard-Thorndike Laboratory, Beth Israel Hospital (Dr Stern); and the Department of Dermatology, Harvard Medical School (Drs Stern and Momtaz), Boston.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication June 29, 1983.

Reprint requests to Department of Dermatology, Beth Israel Hospital, 330 Brookline Ave, Boston, MA 02215 (Dr Stern).

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