ISLAMABAD: Getting frequent bouts of skin cancer could signal an increased risk of other cancers such as blood, breast, bowel and prostate, a new study found.About 60 per cent of those who develop one case of basal cell carcinoma will face multiple bouts of it, said researcher Hugh Jackman.
Abnormally frequent cases of basal cell carcinoma appear to be at a three-fold greater risk of developing other cancers, according to the new research. The increased susceptibility is likely caused by mutations in a panel of proteins responsible for repairing DNA damage.
Scientists at Stanford University School of Medicine said the skin the largest organ in the body could serve as a kind of canary in the coal mine to reveal an individual’s overall cancer susceptibility. Most of the time this system works well but sometimes the repair system gets overwhelmed.
Hugh Jackman has faced six basal cell carcinomas, including one that he had to have removed from his nose in February 2017. So the scientists wondered if the skin could act as an early warning system for other cancers. Dr Sarin said that the skin is basically a walking mutagenesis experiment. It is the best organ to detect genetic problems that could lead to cancers.
The study published in JCI Insight looked at 61 patients treated at Stanford Health Care for unusually frequent basal cell carcinomas an average of 11 per patient over a 10 year period. They investigated whether these people may have mutations in 29 genes that code for DNA damage repair proteins. Prof Sarin said that we found that about 20 per cent of the people with frequent basal cell carcinomas have a mutation in one of the genes responsible for repairing DNA damage versus about three per cent of the general population.
Furthermore, 21 of the 61 reported a history of additional cancers, including blood cancer, melanoma, prostate cancer, breast cancer and colon cancer. To confirm the findings, the researchers applied a similar analysis on 13,000 people who had six or more basal cell carcinomas on a large medical insurance claims database.
They found that these people also were over three times more likely to have developed other cancers, including colon, melanoma and blood cancers. Finally, the researchers identified an upward trend the more basal cell carcinomas an individual reported the more likely that person was to have had other cancers as well.
Dr Sarin concluded that he was surprised to see such a strong correlation. Now we can ask patients with repeated basal cell carcinomas whether they have family members with other types of cancers and perhaps suggest that they consider genetic testing and increased screening, her added. Basal cell carcinoma starts in the cells lining the bottom of the epidermis and usually appears as a small shiny pink or pearly white lump with a translucent or waxy appearance. It can also look like a red scaly patch and sometimes there is some brown or black pigment within the patch.
The lump slowly gets bigger and may become crusty bleed or develop into a painless ulcer. Further research is ongoing to explore whether particular mutations in genes responsible for repairing DNA damage are linked to the development of specific malignancies, Dr Sarin added.