Greater Risk Of Cancers Associated With History Of Nonmelanoma Skin Cancer
Main Category: Melanoma / Skin CancerAlso Included In: Cancer / Oncology
Article Date: 28 Aug 2008 - 3:00 PDT
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Individuals with a history of nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) are at increased risk for other cancers, according to a study published in the August 26 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Previous studies have documented that people who have had nonmelanoma skin cancer were at increased risk for developing melanoma, but it is less well-established whether they were also at risk for cancers that do not involve the skin.
In the current study, Anthony Alberg, Ph.D., of the Medical University of South Carolina and colleagues analyzed data from a prospective cohort study called CLUE II, which was established in Washington County, Md., in 1989. Alberg's team compared the risk of malignancies in 769 individuals who had been diagnosed with nonmelanoma skin cancer and 18,405 individuals with no history of the disease during a 16-year follow-up period.
The overall incidence of cancers was 293.5 cases per 10,000 person-years in the participants with a history of nonmelanoma skin cancer and 77.8 per 10,000 in those individuals without a history of skin cancer. After adjusting for other known variables associated with cancer risk, including age, sex, body mass index, smoking status, and education level, the researchers found that individuals with a history of nonmelanoma skin cancer had a two-fold increase in the risk of subsequent cancers compared with individuals with no skin cancer history.
The increased risk remained statistically significant when the researchers removed melanoma from the list of subsequent cancers, indicating that the elevated risk was not restricted to melanoma. The association was observed for both types of nonmelanoma skin cancer, basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma.
The strongest association between a history of skin cancer and subsequent malignancies was seen in the youngest study participants, aged 25 to 44 years. "This pattern of associations, with earlier age of [nonmelanoma skin cancer] diagnosis being linked more strongly to the risk of developing subsequent malignancies, is consistent with the pattern that one would expect for a marker of inherited predisposition to cancer," the authors write.
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Citation: Chen J, Ruczinski I, Jorgensen TJ, Yenokyan G, Yao Y, Alani R, Liégeois NJ, et al. Nonmelanoma Skin Cancer and Risk for Subsequent Malignancy. J Natl Cancer Inst 2008; 1215-1222
The Journal of the National Cancer Institute is published by Oxford University Press and is not affiliated with the National Cancer Institute. Visit the Journal online at http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/.
Source: Liz Savage
htJournal of the National Cancer Institute
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Visitor Opinions In Chronological Order (1)
Nonmelanoma Skin Cancer Correlates With Internal Cancers Depending On Latitude
posted by william B. Grant on 28 Aug 2008 at 4:37 amThe finding by Chen et al. [2008] applies to latitudes where solar radiation including ultraviolet-B (UVB) is relatively low throughout the year, even in summer. Thus, those who develop skin cancer there are more likely to have their head, neck and hands exposed rather than larger areas of their body as would people living to the south. Therefore, they can develop skin cancer, but not receive sufficient UVB over enough body surface area to produce enough vitamin D to have a beneficial effect in reducing the risk of internal cancers. The changing relation between skin cancer and internal cancers for sunny and less sunny countries was reported by Tuohimaa et al. [2007] and I discussed the implications of their findings in subsequent commentary. In the sunny countries, skin cancer, but not melanoma, was inversely correlated with a large number of internal cancers. The dividing line between sunny and less sunny countries is near 40 degrees latitude, which is that of the Chen et al. [2008] study. Abstracts of these and related papers can be found at http://www.pubmed.gov.
References
Chen J, Ruczinski I, Jorgensen TJ, et al., Nonmelanoma Skin Cancer and Risk for Subsequent Malignancy. JNCI. 2008;16:1215-22.
Grant WB. The effect of solar UVB doses and vitamin D production, skin cancer action spectra, and smoking in explaining links between skin cancers and solid tumours. Eur J Cancer. 2008 Jan;44(1):12-5.
Tuohimaa P, Pukkala E, Scélo G, et al. Does solar exposure, as indicated by the non-melanoma skin cancers, protect from solid cancers: vitamin D as a possible explanation. Eur J Cancer. 2007 Jul;43(11):1701-12.
William B. Grant, Ph.D.
Sunlight, Nutrition, and Health Research Center (SUNARC)
San Francisco
http://www.sunarc.org
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