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sunsetgal
USA
5 Posts |
 Posted - 10/30/2008 : 15:08:35
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i'm so nervous about my FOURTH cut on my face for skin cancers. i have basal cell, squamous cells and pre-cancers. now the dr wants me to apply for two weeks efudex (which i'm nervous about) but more frightening is does skin cancer make you more susceptible to other cancers?? sunsetgal
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dan
611 Posts |
Posted - 10/30/2008 : 21:45:39
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Two recent studies say a history of skin cancers makes you more susceptible to other cancers. But before you despair, the association is not super strong, and I feel strongly that the increased risk is reversible through cancer prevention measures. A third study says vitamin D, obtained from sun exposure, is important to prevent cancers. If you follow common advice (e.g., http://www.cancer.org/docroot/NWS/content/NWS_1_1x_Non-melanoma_Skin_Cancer_May_Raise_Risk_of_Other_Cancers.asp ) and try to completely avoid the sun to avoid skin cancer, you may be doing yourself more harm than good.
The Nonmelanoma Skin Cancer and Risk for Subsequent Malignancy study at http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/djn260
published in August 2008 compared the risk of new malignancies among 769 individuals with and 18405 individuals without a personal history of Non Melanoma Skin Cancer (NMSC) during a 16-year follow-up period.
Results: The crude incidence rate (per 10 000 person-years) of subsequent cancers other than NMSC among participants with a positive personal history of NMSC was 293.5 and with a negative history was 77.8.
Compared with persons with no personal history of NMSC, those with such a history had an approximately 2 times increased risk of being diagnosed with a subsequent cancer other than NMSC. The association was observed for both basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma of the skin. NMSC was a statistically significantly stronger cancer risk factor in younger age groups than in older age groups. This community-based, prospective cohort study provides evidence for an association between an NMSC diagnosis and an increased risk of subsequent cancer, even after adjusting for individual-level risk factors.
Another study at http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/280/10/910 that says non melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) is associated with increased total cancer mortality (men's relative risk [RR], 1.30; women's RR, 1.26).
Finally, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=17208438 looks at why nearly 20 types of cancer have been found to be inversely correlated with solar ultraviolet-B (UVB) levels.
METHODS: Rates of second cancer after diagnosis of nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) from the literature were used in linear regression analyses. The risk modification of NMSC due to smoking was accounted for by comparing second cancer risk ratios (RRs) with lung cancer RRs in regression analysis for each cancer. RESULTS: For a diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma, RRs for subsequent colon, gastric, and rectal cancers were significantly reduced, with that for renal cancer being marginally insignificant. For NMSC, RRs for cervical, esophageal, gastric, and rectal cancer were significantly reduced; those for colon and gallbladder cancer were marginally insignificant, while those for female breast, laryngeal, ovarian, renal, and uterine corpus cancers were insignificantly reduced; RRs for lip and salivary gland cancers and melanoma were significantly increased. Melanoma was inversely correlated with lung cancer. CONCLUSION: These results provide nearly direct evidence that solar UVB irradiance reduces the risk of many internal cancers. The likely mechanism is production of Vitamin D.
These studies affirm that prevention measures for skin cancers should also help with other cancers, and that managing skin cancers through surgeries is a poor primary approach. http://www.topicalinfo.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=98 |
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mark12
USA
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skin cancer makes you more susceptible to cancer?
