The Burden of Nonmelanoma Skin Cancer

Hensin Tsao, MD, PhD reviewing Rogers HW et al. JAMA Dermatol 2015 Oct 1.
Almost 5.5 million NMSCs were treated in 2012.

Because nonmelanoma skin cancers (NMSCs) are not formally registered in any national database, the actual number of these lesions has been a subject of debate. Investigators used U.S. government administrative data to estimate the total number of new skin cancer diagnoses and look at the change from 2006 to 2012.

These authors used national survey data and two Medicare databases to estimate the incidence of NMSC (keratinocyte carcinomas) in the U.S. population in 2012 and the incidence of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in the 2012 Medicare fee-for-service population. The total number of fee-for-service Medicare skin cancer procedures increased from 2,048,517 to 2,321,058 (13%) over the 7 years of the study. The age-adjusted rate of skin cancer procedures increased from 6075 per 100 000 beneficiaries in 2006 to 7320 in 2012. The overall number of NMSC-specific procedures increased from 1,918,340 to 2,191,100 (14%) over that period. The number of persons undergoing at least one procedure for NMSC increased from 1,177,618 to 1,336,800 (14%) in the same span, while the average number of procedures per beneficiary remained stable. The authors estimate the total number of NMSCs treated in the U.S. in 2012 to be 5,434,193.

Citation(s):

Rogers HW et al. Incidence estimate of nonmelanoma skin cancer (keratinocyte carcinomas) in the US population, 2012. JAMA Dermatol 2015 Oct 1; 151:1081.