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A cohort study of personal and family history of skin cancer in relation to all-cause and cancer-specific mortality

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Abstract

Purpose

Even though the fatality rate from skin cancers is low, evidence from a few cohort studies has raised the possibility that people with a personal history of skin cancer may have a higher all-cause mortality rate compared with those without a personal history of skin cancer. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the potential links between a personal history or family history of skin cancer and all-cause and cancer-specific mortality

Methods

A prospective cohort (n = 8,622) was assembled within the NHANES I follow-up study. Cox Proportional Hazard Regression analysis was used to estimate the hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association for personal and family history of skin cancer and all-cause and cancer-specific mortality.

Results

After adjustment for several potential confounding variables, a personal history of skin cancer was associated with decreased risk for all-cause mortality (HR 0.72, 95% CI 0.61–0.85), whereas the results for cancer-specific mortality were consistent with a null association (HR 0.97, 95% CI 0.74–1.27). A family history of skin cancer was not significantly associated with all-cause mortality (HR 0.97, 95% CI 0.76–1.24) or cancer-specific mortality (HR 0.69, 95% CI 0.38–1.24).

Conclusion

The results of the present study do not support the hypothesis that a personal history or family history of skin cancer is associated with an increased risk of all-cause or cancer-specific mortality. The high prevalence of skin cancer adds to the public health significance of this question, providing a strong rationale for further research to resolve this question.

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Data availability

Yes, upon request.

Code availability

Yes, upon request.

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Funding

Supported in part by the Biostatistics Shared Resource of the Hollings Cancer Center, Medical University of South Carolina (P30 CA138313).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, 29425, USA

    James Small

  2. Department of Public Health Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, BE 103, 68 President Street, Charleston, SC, 29425, USA

    Kristin Wallace

  3. Department of Public Health Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, 86 Jonathan Lucas St, Charleston, SC, 29425, USA

    Elizabeth G. Hill

  4. Dermatology and Dermatologic Surgery, Medical University of South Carolina, 135 Rutledge Ave, Charleston, SC, 29425, USA

    Bruce H. Thiers

  5. The Skin Surgery Center of Charleston, 180 Wingo Way, Mount Pleasant, SC, 29464, USA

    Brian C. Leach

  6. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Discovery I, 915 Greene Street, Columbia, SC, 29201, USA

    Anthony J. Alberg

Authors
  1. James Small
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  2. Kristin Wallace
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  3. Elizabeth G. Hill
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  4. Bruce H. Thiers
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kristin Wallace.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

N/A non-human subject’s research (publicly available deidentified dataset).

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Small, J., Wallace, K., Hill, E.G. et al. A cohort study of personal and family history of skin cancer in relation to all-cause and cancer-specific mortality. Cancer Causes Control 32, 75–82 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-020-01359-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-020-01359-0

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