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Basal cell carcinoma occurs in 2 million people in US per year

An estimated 2 million people in the United States will develop at least one basal cell carcinoma in a given year, with white patients aged older than 65 years identified as a high-risk subgroup, according to recently published study results.

Researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study of 147,093 patients (median age, 66 years; 54.8% men) with basal cell carcinoma (BCC) from Kaiser Permanente Northern California between 1998 and 2012.

Annual BCC incidence rates were estimated by age, sex and race/ethnicity using Poisson regression for 2012, the most recent year of complete data available, with changes over time assessed. The 2010 U.S. Census population for race, sex and race/ethnicity population was used to standardize the BCC incidence rates.

The incidence rate of BCC in 2012 among this group was 535 cases per 100,000 person-years.

Males had higher incidence rates of BCC compared with females (incidence rate ratio = 1.65; 95% CI, 1.6-1.7) when adjusted for age, sex and race. In a comparison with people aged 40 to 64 years, higher incidence rates also were reported for people aged 65 to 79 years (IRR = 2.96; 95% CI, 2.86-3.06) and 80 years and older (IRR = 5.14; 95% CI, 4.94-5.35). White patients reported higher incidence rates compared with multiracial (IRR = 1.96; 95% CI, 1.80-2.13), Hispanics (IRR = 8.56; 95% CI, 7.79-9.41), Asians (IRR = 33.13; 95% CI, 27.84-39.42) and black patients (IRR = 72.98; 95% CI, 49.21-108.22).

When applying 2012 incidence rates to the U.S. population, the researchers estimated nearly 2 million incidence BCCs annually in the U.S.

“We found that overall incidence of BCC slightly increased during a 15-year observation period, but this increase was not remarkable,” the researchers concluded. “In addition to providing a current estimate of the BCC incidence rate, we identify highest-risk demographic subgroups, namely whites older than 65 years, and show that male patients are at increased risk compared with female patients.” – by Bruce Thiel

Disclosure: Asgari reported receiving grant funding as a research investigator to her institution, Kaiser Permanente, from Pfizer and 3 Valeant Pharmaceuticals, however, reported that “these funding organizations are not relevant to the current work.” No other researchers reported relevant financial disclosures.