Skin Cancer May Perk Up Chances of Developing Other Cancers, Study Says

A latest American study published on Tuesday found a link between having a non melanoma skin cancerdefine and developing other malignancies. The researchers found that people with non melanoma skin cancer are twice as likely to develop another form of cancer later on.

The study which appears online in the Journal of the National Cancerdefine Institute found that the risk is more pronounced in younger people and suggest people who have a history of non melanoma skin cancer may be more prone to other cancer in general.

Lead author of the study, Anthony Alberg, a researcher at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, said, "It seems like non-melanoma skin cancer, even though it is a non-fatal disease, may be a warning sign for increased risk of other, more serious cancers. That's not just cancer related to melanoma or other skin cancers."

Each year, approximately 1 million people in the United States alone develop a normally non-fatal form of skin cancer which includes basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, according to the American Cancer Society. If a person develops these tumors it perks up his risk of developing melanoma which is a deadly form of skin cancer. Now scientists are trying to find a link between skin cancer and cancers of other body parts.

The researchers from Johns Hopkins and the Medical University of South Carolina looked at 769 patients with non-melanoma skin cancer and 18,405 people without skin cancer over 16 years.

They found that subjects with non-melanoma skin cancer had more than twice the normal risk of developing another form of cancer, even after adjusting for known triggers, including age, smoking, level of education, size, skin type and sun exposure.

Alberg said, "People with a personal history of non-melanoma skin cancer were two times more likely to develop a subsequent cancer compared to people without a personal history of non-melanoma skin cancer.”

The team found that younger subjects (in the between the ages of 25 to 44 years) who had been diagnosed with skin cancer had 2.6 times increased risk of developing another type of cancer.

He added, "The results were pretty clear in showing the earlier the age of developing non-melanoma skin cancer, the higher the increased risk for subsequent malignancies.”

The scientists found that there was increased risk of lung cancer, colondefine and breast cancer.

Alberg said. "For prostate cancerdefine, the trend was in the direction of increased risk, but the association was weaker and not statistically significant."

The author of the study said that though still much more research are needed to study individual risks, people who have had history of non-melanoma cancer should let their doctor know about it. "It seems to be a more important part of a personal health history than we thought before," he said.

Previous study conducted by researchers at The Rutgers University in New Jersey shows that exercising regularly and drinking moderate amount of coffee may help ward-off skin cancer.

Earlier this month scientists from US have come up with the concept of specific chemical analysis to explore odor profiling in a novel and non-invasive to diagnose the most common form of skin cancer.

Nearly 100,000 people in Britain are diagnosed with skin cancer every year and over 380,000 people in Australia are treated for skin cancer each year. In U.S., Australia, skin cancer is the most common type of cancer. If treated on time, nearly 95 percent of skin cancers are cured.

One can prevent skin cancer by taking care of skin exposure to sunlight during childhood and adolescence. Overexposure of skin to Ultraviolet Radiationdefine (UV) and sunburn and during these years greatly perks up the chance of melanoma and other skin cancers later in life. Melanoma can occur anywhere on the body and may grow quickly and if not treated on time, it may spread to other parts of the body to form new, secondary cancers.

People at risk of developing melanoma are those who have freckles or many moles, have a family history of skin cancer, are fair-skinned and don't tan but go red in the sun, go to tanning salons, suntan or work outdoors for long periods of time.