What Are The Risks Signalled By Frequent Skin Cancer?

The Situation Prevailing In Skin Cancer Causes

A new study suggests that people who have frequent recurrences of common skin cancer may be at increased risk of a range of other cancers. 

A highly treatable form of skin cancer diagnosed in over 3 million Americans each year is basal cell carcinoma which researchers found with the heightened risk among patients. 

Showing higher-than-average risks of breast, colon, prostate, as well as blood cancers, are patients who had developed at least six BCCs over 10 years. 

People who develop any form of skin cancer face an increased risk of other skin cancers including the most serious form, melanoma as is well known. 

Lead researcher Dr. Kavita Sarin states that people have an increased risk of internal cancers that haven’t been seen before as the study shows that when people have frequent basal cell carcinomas.  

The Underlying Causes. 

Caused mainly by ultraviolet exposure and coming to be highly curable is basal cell carcinoma. According to Sarin, an assistant professor of dermatology at Stanford University, the vast majority of people do not develop it at the frequency linked to internal cancers. 

It may signal an underlying susceptibility to cancer more generally, as she said her team’s findings suggest that when people do have such frequent recurrences. 

The researchers analysed the DNA of 61 patients with frequent basal cell carcinomas and thereby found 20 percent had mutations in genes helping repair DNA damage in body cells according to the study. When such abnormal cells grow and spread unchecked, cancer arises. 

Sarin said much higher than you would see in the general population comes the 20 percent figure. 

The finding is based on a small group of patients and further research is necessary as she cautioned. 

Calling the findings important though not surprising is Dr. Vernon Sondak, heading the skin cancer department at Moffitt Cancer Center, in Tampa, Fla.,

The skin can serve as a tip of where a person is relatively more vulnerable to DNA damage from various exposures as it has long been thought. 

Sondak, who was not involved in the study later says it may make them more susceptible to other cancers where the study suggests that the same underlying biology making certain people especially vulnerable to the DNA damage from the known UV radiation. 

Sondak further explains that getting recommended screenings for other cancers like breast, and colon cancers, are people with a history of frequent BCCs. 

He further noted they might talk to their doctors about whether screening at an earlier age is a good idea if they have a strong family history of any of those internal cancers. 

Get The Second Opinion Here 

In some cases, genetic testing might be suggested as Sarin agrees. 

With an average of 11 times over 10 years, the study findings are based on the 61 patients at Stanford who had been treated for an unusually large number of BCCs. Having a history of other cancers was more than one-third of them. 

The risks of blood, breast, colon, and prostate cancers were roughly three-to-six times higher versus the norm for Americans of the same age and race as they study authors reported among patients with at least six basal cell carcinoma diagnoses. 

With information on over 111,000 BCC patients, the researchers then confirmed the pattern using a health insurance database. Including blood and colon cancers, people with frequent basal cell carcinomas had increased risks of internal cancers. 

20 percent had mutations in any of a dozen genes involved in DNA repair including the BRCA genes linked to breast and ovarian cancers among the Stanford patients. 

According to Sarin, it was seen in about 3 percent of the general population in contrast. 

The Final Thoughts. 

Here the question is what about the other 80 percent of patients? To be involved Sarin said its possible other groups of genes like tumour suppressor genes. They will be looking at that as she and her colleagues are continuing the study. 

Whether the same pattern is true of the people with frequent recurrences of squamous cell carcinoma, another common, highly curable skin cancer, which is another question as Sarin said. 

She stressed that the higher cancer risk was seen only when people had frequent BCC diagnoses for now. As she said, if you have had one or two basal cell carcinomas, this doesn’t apply to you. In the journal JCI Insight, the findings were published online. 

When you go for skin cancer treatment make sure you don’t have any other factors being viewed as the cause.