Skin Cancer Survivors More likely to Get Other Types of Cancers, Study

People who've survived non-melanoma skin cancer have a high risk of developing the deadly melanoma cancer and other cancers. The risk is higher in young cancer survivors.

Non-melanoma skin cancers are common types of skin cancers and include basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. NMSC rarely invade other parts of the body. Melanoma cancers are rare type and can spread to other parts of the body.

"Our study shows that NMSC susceptibility is an important indicator of susceptibility to malignant tumors and that the risk is especially high among people who develop NMSC at a young age," said Dr. Rodney Sinclair, director of dermatology at the Epworth Hospital in Australia. "The risk increases for a large group of seemingly unrelated cancers; however, the greatest risk relates to other cancers induced by sunlight, such as melanoma."

Previous research, too, has supported the idea that NMSC can increase risk of other cancers in some people.

Sinclair and colleagues hypothesized that older people develop cancers mostly due to increased duration of exposure to the sun's harmful radiation. Young people with skin cancers are usually those who are genetically more susceptible to cancers.

In the present study, researchers used data from All England Record-linked Hospital and Mortality, which was collected between 1999 and 2011.

Researchers looked at records of 500,000 people with a history of non-melanoma skin cancer and followed them for five to six years. The data from this group was compared with cancer data from 8.7 million people without non-melanoma skin cancer, HealthDay reported.

Data analysis showed that NMSC survivors were 1.36 times more likely to develop other types of cancers such as bladder, brain, breast, colon, liver, lung, pancreas, prostate, and stomach.

The study also showed that people who had NMSC before age 25 were 53 times more likely to get bone cancer and 26 times more likely to get cancers of blood.

"Early detection of cancers through screening of asymptomatic people works best when screening can be targeted at those at greatest risk," said Sinclair in a news release. "Our study identifies people who receive a diagnosis of NMSC at a young age as being at increased risk for cancer and, therefore, as a group who could benefit from screening for internal malignancy."

The study is published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.