People diagnosed with non-melanoma skin cancer have higher chances of getting other types of cancers, a latest study shows.
Researchers found that the younger people were at an increased risk. For the study, they examined over 500,000 people who had non-melanoma skin cancer. They were tracked for 5 to 6 years.
The participants' data was compared with a group of almost 8.7 million people, who did not have the non-melanoma skin cancer.
The researchers found that the non-melanoma skin cancer survivors were 1.36 times more likely to develop other types of cancer with younger patients at greater risk.
The study results also showed that the risk was 23 times higher for people younger than 25 years of age. But, the risk was 3.5 times higher for those aged between 25 and 44. People with non-melanoma skin cancer between ages 45 and 59 had 1.74 times increased risk.
"Our study shows that [non-melanoma 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 news release.
"The risk increases for a large group of seemingly unrelated cancers; however, the greatest risk relates to other cancers induced by sunlight, such as melanoma," added Sinclair, who is also a professor of medicine at the University of Melbourne.
The study is published in the new issue of the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
