People who've had nonmelanoma skin cancer have an increased risk of developing melanoma, this is especially true in younger populations.
Researchers followed 500,000 people who had experienced nonmelanoma skin cancer for between five and six years, HealthDay reported. The research team compared these subjects with 8.7 million people who did not have a history of nonmelanoma skin cancer.
The researchers found the study subjects who had suffered from nonmelanoma skin cancer were 1.36 times more likely to develop other types of cancer. Healthday reported. The younger the patient was the greater the risk. Cancer risk was 23 times higher for those under 25 and 3.5 times higher in those between the ages of 25 and 44.
The primary cancer the patients had a higher risk of developing were "melanoma skin cancer, and cancers of the breast, colon, bladder, liver, lung, brain, prostate, stomach and pancreas," HealthDay reported.
"Early detection of cancers through screening of asymptomatic people works best when screening can be targeted at those at greatest risk," study researcher Dr. Rodney Sinclair, M.B.B.S., M.D., the director of dermatology at the Epworth Hospital and professor of medicine at the University of Melbourne, said in a statement, the Huffington Post reported. "Our study identifies people who receive a diagnosis of NMSC [non-melanoma skin cancer] at a young age as being at increased risk for cancer and, therefore, as a group who could benefit from screening for internal malignancy."
Nonmelanoma skin cancer is the most common type of skin cancer; it is generally easy to treat and non-spreading.
"Our study shows that [nonmelanoma skin cancer] susceptibility is an important indicator of susceptibility to malignant tumors and that the risk is especially high among people who develop [the condition] at a young age," Dr. Rodney Sinclair, director of dermatology at the Epworth Hospital in Australia, said in a journal news release, HealthDay reported.
