Researchers from the Medical University of South Carolina recently published results of a study that shows a link between non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) and a future risk of developing other types of cancer. The study analyzed data gathered from individuals residing in Washington County, MD in 1989, with follow-up observations over the next 16 years. The risk of developing new malignancies was compared among individuals both with and without a personal history of non-melanoma skin cancer (basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma).

After other risk factors (smoking, education level, body mass index, age, sex, etc.) were taken into account, the data revealed that people who had previously been diagnosed with NMSC face a two-fold increase in the risk of developing another form of cancer over those individuals with no personal history of NMSC. Additionally, NMSC was a statistically significantly stronger cancer risk factor in younger age groups than in older age groups. Dr. Anthony Alberg of the Medical University of South Carolina commented on the findings: "This pattern of associations, with earlier age of NMSC diagnosis being linked more strongly to the risk of developing subsequent malignancies, is consistent with the pattern that one would expect for a marker of inherited predisposition to cancer."

Of course there are limitations as noted in the study (sample group size and location, differences in medical care, etc.) but the researchers believe that; "NMSC appears to be a clinically important and substantial risk marker for subsequent malignancies and may be a marker of a general high–cancer risk phenotype."

Read more from the study published in this months Journal of the National Cancer Institute.