Epidemiology of nonmelanoma skin cancer: a review

The nonmelanoma skin cancers (NMSC), including basal-cell and squamous-cell carcinoma, are the most common type of cancer in white populations. Its incidence has increased has increased worldwide over the last few decades. Mortality from NMSC is low, but the estimated recurrence rate of about 50% at five years and the local invasiveness involve high medical costs and make NMSC a public health concern. Epidemiologic evidence relevant to the effects of UV radiation on the risk of skin cancer comes from both descriptive and analytic studies. More recently, the collaboration between molecular biology and epidemiology has contributed to assess the potential synergism between environmental and genetic factors, such as the capacity of repairing the UV-induced DNA damage, in the etiology of nonmelanoma skin cancer, as by the xeroderma pigmentosum model.