Frequency of skin cancers in Hamedan from 1991 to 2007

"nBackground and Aim: Skin cancers are one of the most common malignancies in the world and create a high rate of morbidity but low rate of mortality with the exception of malignant melanoma that has a high mortality rate. In recent decades, incidence of skin cancer has been increased. The most important risk factors are sunlight and skin type. The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of skin cancers in patients who were admitted to Sina Hospital of Hamedan during a 17-year period."n"nMethods: In this cross-sectional study, 951 patients with different types of skin cancer, entered in the study. For each patient, data related to age, gender, location, occupation, pathologic type of cancer and site of skin involvement, were collected."n"nResults: The mean age (mean±standard deviation) of patients was 61.6±15.3 years (2-100 yrs) and most of them (67.2%) were males and workers (%38). The most common pathologic types of skin cancer were basal cell carcinoma (BCC) (59%) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) (29%). The most frequent site of tumor expression was face (61.2%) and the least frequent involved site was genitalia (0.4%)."n"nConclusion: This study showed that skin cancer is more common in males, old patients and workers. It was more common on the face. Screening program for detection of this disease at an earlier stage of elderly men especially in sun exposed occupations is recommended.