5 Facts About Skin Cancer You May Not Know

By Matthew Halpern, MD

May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month and we’re doing our best to make sure New Jersey residents are armed with the facts about this widespread and serious disease. Test your knowledge!

1.  Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States. More than 3.5 million skin cancers in over two million people are diagnosed each year.  Each year, there are more new cases of skin cancer than the combined incidence of cancers of the breast, prostate, lung and colon.  This means that one in five Americans will develop skin cancer in the course of a lifetime. 

2.  Basal cell carcinoma is the most common form of skin cancer, with an estimated 2.8 million cases diagnosed each year in the United States. This form of skin cancer, which is rarely fatal, can be highly disfiguring if left untreated.  

3.  Squamous cell carcinoma is the second most common form of skin cancer. Approximately 700,000 new cases of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma are diagnosed each year in the United States.  It is estimated that 65 percent of all squamous cell carcinomas arise from precancerous lesions called actinic keratoses.  

An example of melanoma.

4.  Melanoma, which is one of the most serious types of skin cancer, is on the rise.  Over the past 10 years, the incidence of melanoma has increased at 1.9% percent per year. Over the past 40 years, the incidence of melanoma has increased by 800 percent in young women and 400 percent in young men. It is estimated that 76,690 new cases of invasive melanoma will be diagnosed in the US in 2013. Melanoma is the fifth most common type of cancer for males and the seventh most common for females.  The risk of melanoma doubles in someone with a history of more than five sunburns in their lifetime.  Just one or more blistering sunburns also doubles the risk of developing a melanoma over the course of a lifetime.  

5.  Skin cancers can affect people of all ages.  Although the average age of someone diagnosed with skin cancer is over 50, the number of women under the age of 40 diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma has doubled in the last 30 years.  Similarly the number of squamous cell carcinomas in this age group has increased by over 700 percent.  Anecdotally, I see several patients in their 20s and 30s each year who have developed non melanoma skin cancers.

Watch for our next newsletter for tips on how to prevent skin cancer, as well as how skin cancer can be detected and treated. Past issues can be accessed on our website.