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Incidence of nonmelanoma skin cancers increasing
The disease may affect more people than all other cancers combined.
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The number of people diagnosed each year with a nonmelanoma skin cancer,along with the number of people with a history of nonmelanoma skin cancer, has increased dramatically during the past couple of decades, according to two studies published in Archives of Dermatology.
The first study, conducted by Howard W. Rogers, MD, PhD, of Advanced Dermatology, Norwich, Conn., and colleagues, estimated that as of 2006, about 3.5 million people in the United States had a nonmelanoma skin cancer.
“Skin cancer rates seem to be climbing rapidly in the U.S. population,” Rogers and colleagues wrote in their study. “Having accurate estimates of nonmelanoma skin cancer incidence is important in establishing the public health burden of this condition.”
The researchers analyzed data from two Medicare databases and national surveys to estimate the incidence and treatment rates of nonmelanoma skin cancer in 2006.
They found that from 1992 to 2006 the number of fee-for-service Medicare skin cancer procedures increased 77%, from about 1.1 million to about 2 million. This translated into an age-adjusted procedure rate increase per 100,000 beneficiaries from 3,514 in 1992 to 6,075 in 2006.
Between 2002 and 2006, when database linkages allowed more detailed analyses, procedures to treat nonmelanoma skin cancer increased 16%, the number of procedures per affected person increased 1.5% and the number of individuals undergoing at least one procedure increased by 14.3%
In the second study, Robert S. Stern, MD, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, developed a mathematical model to estimate the prevalence of nonmelanoma skin cancer in 2007.
“This model used age-specific incidence data adjusted to reflect change in incidence from 1957 to 2006, the age distribution of the population from 1957 to 2006 and the likelihood that an incident tumor was the first ever for that person,” Stern wrote.
The model estimated that about 13 million white non-Hispanics had at least one nonmelanoma skin cancer at the beginning of 2007, a number that is “about five times higher than that of breast or prostate cancer and greater than the 31-year prevalence of all other cancers combined,” Stern wrote.
In addition, about 20% of people aged 70 years or older has a history of at least one nonmelanoma skin cancer, and about 30% will have a history of one by age 90 years.
“The prevalence of a history of skin cancer is far higher than that of any other cancer and exceeds that of all other cancers diagnosed since 1975,” Stern wrote. “Yet, recent population-based data concerning skin cancer incidence, morbidity, and cost of care are lacking for the most common types of skin cancer, basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma.”
Rogers HW. Arch Dermatol. 2010;146:283-287.
Stern RS. Arch Dermatol. 2010;146:279-282.