Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Aug;306(6):555-60.
doi: 10.1007/s00403-014-1469-3. Epub 2014 May 28.

Invasive cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma incidence in US health care workers

Khang D Nguyen  1 , Jiali Han, Tricia Li, Abrar A Qureshi
Affiliations

Invasive cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma incidence in US health care workers

Khang D Nguyen et al. Arch Dermatol Res. 2014 Aug.

Abstract

Little data on cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) epidemiology within the United States are currently available. Prior studies have focused on populations outside of the United States or been limited to regions within the US. In this study, prospective data were collected via biennial questionnaires from a total of 261,609 participants, which included women in the Nurses' Health Study (NHS, 1976-2008) and Nurses' Health Study II (NHS II, 1989-2009), and men in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS, 1986-2008). History of physician-diagnosed invasive SCC was confirmed by pathology record review. Over the entire follow-up period for each cohort, there were 1,265 invasive SCC cases per 100,000 persons in the NHS cohort, 389 cases per 100,000 persons in NHS II, and 2,154 cases per 100,000 persons in HPFS. An 18-year follow-up of participants in these cohorts revealed increasing invasive SCC incidence rates over time, with rates for men being consistently higher than those for women. In women, a larger proportion of invasive SCC lesions occurred on the lower extremities as compared to men (21 % in NHS vs. 6 % in HPFS, p < 0.0001; 14 % in NHS II vs. 6 % in HPFS, p < 0.0001), while in men, a larger proportion occurred on the head/neck (43 % in NHS vs. 60 % in HPFS, p < 0.0001; 48 % in NHS II vs. 60 % in HPFS, p < 0.0001). In summary, invasive SCC incidence rates among US men have been greater than those for women with distinct sites of common occurrence between men and women.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Plot of invasive SCC incidence rates for US women and men aged 35–45 at baseline; Nurses’ Health Study (NHS, 1976–1994), Nurses’ Health Study II (NHS II, 1989–2007,), and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS, 1986–2004). NHS: dark line, NHS II: dotted line, HPFS: dashed line.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Body site distributions of invasive SCC lesions in US women and men; Nurses’ Health Study (NHS, 1976–2008), Nurses’ Health Study II (NHS II, 1989–2009), and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS, 1986–2008). NHS: white bar, NHS II: dark bar, HPFS: striped bar.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Athas WF, Hunt WC, Key CR. Changes in nonmelanoma skin cancer incidence between 1977–1978 and 1998–1999 in Northcentral New Mexico. Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology. 2003;12 (10):1105–1108. - PubMed
    1. Diepgen TL, Mahler V. The epidemiology of skin cancer. The British journal of dermatology. 2002;146(Suppl 61):1–6. - PubMed
    1. Gallagher RP, Ma B, McLean DI, Yang CP, Ho V, Carruthers JA, Warshawski LM. Trends in basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and melanoma of the skin from 1973 through 1987. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. 1990;23 (3 Pt 1):413–421. - PubMed
    1. Geller AC, Miller DR, Annas GD, Demierre MF, Gilchrest BA, Koh HK. Melanoma incidence and mortality among US whites, 1969–1999. JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association. 2002;288 (14):1719–1720. - PubMed
    1. Harris RB, Griffith K, Moon TE. Trends in the incidence of nonmelanoma skin cancers in southeastern Arizona, 1985–1996. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. 2001;45 (4):528–536. doi: 10.1067/mjd.2001.114742. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types