Burden and Chemoprevention of Skin Cancer

Abstract

The incidence of skin cancer is increasing in the Netherlands since 1989, the first year of the Netherlands Cancer Registry (NCR). In 2010 more than 43,000 patients were newly diagnosed with skin cancer in the Netherlands. During a life time at least 1 in 5 persons living in the Netherlands will develop skin cancer. The most common skin cancer is basal cell carcinoma (BCC), followed by squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and melanoma. BCC and SCC combined are often referred to as nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC). However, technically the group of NMSC also includes other types of skin cancer, such as T cell lymphoma, Merkel cell carcinoma and Kaposi sarcoma. In this thesis we therefore refer to BCC and SCC combined as keratinocytic cancers, because BCC and SCC both arise from the cells located in the epidermis, which is the upper layer of the skin