NONMELANOMA SKIN-CANCER IN NORTHERN FINLAND

Background and Objectives. The incidence of nonmelanoma skin cancers i s highest in those geographic areas where light-skinned people are exp osed to targe amounts of sunlight. The purpose of this study was to de tect differences in nonmelanoma skin cancers diagnosed in Northern Fin land compared to those from elsewhere. Another purpose was to estimate whether changes have occurred in clinical diagnosis, site distributio n, and recurrence rate during the past 15 years.Methods. The material included patients treated at Oulu University Hospital in Northern Finl and (64.6 degrees N) during the years 1976-1977 and 1991-1992. informa tion was collected from files on 334 patients with 428 different, hist ologically verified skin cancers. Results. in 1976-1977, the average a ge of men with basal cell carcinoma (BCC) was 61 years, whereas the wo men's average age was 66 years. In 1991-1992, the corresponding ages w ere 69 and 72 years. The site distribution did not show any obvious ch anges in the 15 years, but the differences between sexes had become mo re prominent. Men had more sec on the ears and the trunk, whereas wome n had more sec on the nose and the forehead. Most of the squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) were on the head and neck similar to BCC, but on the ears of men there occurred relatively more sec than SCC. Conclusions. The clinical diagnosis of BCC was fairly easy to make, whereas that o f SCC seemed to be very difficult clinically and was only correct in 1 0% of the cases. The markedly decreased recurrence rate of BCC between 1976 and 1992 probably occurred because of changes in treatment pract ices.