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Keratinocyte cancer imposes heavy burden on Dutch population
Researchers found keratinocyte cancer has become a large burden in Dutch society, and because incidence rates continue to rise, management has become even more challenging.
Data for all patients with newly diagnosed keratinocyte cancer were obtained from the population-based Netherlands Cancer Registry and the Eindhoven Cancer Registry (1989-2008). The researchers also extracted data on population structure, mortality and life expectancy from Statistics Netherlands. Disability-adjusted life years (DALY) was defined as the sum of the years of life lived with disability and the years of life lost.
Loes Hollestein
From their analysis, the researchers found the world standardized rate of has doubled. More than 32,000 patients had a new diagnosis of keratinocyte cancer in The Netherlands in 2008, compared with 12,918 in 1989, according to the researchers.
When adjusting for age, keratinocyte cancer increased by 1.5 times for men and doubled for women, reaching 103 cases per 100,000 person years for men and 94 cases per 100,000 person years in women in 2008.
The researchers also found that years of life lived with disability estimates in 2004 to 2008 have doubled from 1989 to 1993. Age-standardized years of life lived with disability estimates for basal cell carcinoma (BCC) also doubled during the study period.
In the Dutch population, keratinocyte cancer resulted in 16,400 DALYs, or more than 3,000 DALYs each year during the 2004 to 2008 period.
As a result of BCC, DALYs increased by 107% from 1,400 DALYs in the 1989 to 1993 period to 2,900 DALYs in the 2004 to 2008 period. During the same period, the researchers discovered DALYs as a result of squamous cell carcinoma also increased by 67%.
Disclosure: Nijsten has been a speaker and part of the advisory board for Leo Pharma and Galderma, and received grants from Leo Pharma, Galderma, Meda Pharma and Roche. This project, however, was not financially supported by a pharmaceutical company.