Skin cancer linked to higher risk for other cancers
The Post and Courier
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
The most common form of skin cancer may be an indicator for risk of other cancers that do not involve the skin. People with non-melanoma skin cancer have nearly two times the risk for developing other types of cancer, according to a study published Tuesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Senior author and principal investigator, Anthony Alberg is associate director for cancer prevention and control at Medical University of South Carolina's Hollings Cancer Center. Alberg's team compared the risk of cancer in 769 people who had been diagnosed with non-melanoma skin cancer and 18,405 people with no history of disease over the course of a 16-year period. Non-melanoma skin cancer is a benign form of cancer that is almost always non-fatal, Alberg said. After adjusting for a number of variables — including age, sex, body mass, smoking status, education level, skin type and sunburn history — researchers found that people with a history of non-melanoma skin cancer had a two-fold increase in the risk of subsequent cancers compared to people with no skin cancer history. Read more in tomorrow's editions of The Post and Courier.
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