The Landscape of Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer in Portugal

• Autor(a) principal: Ascenção, Raquel
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Silva, João Maia, Borralho, Paula, Correia, Miguel, Correia, Osvaldo, Costa, João, Machado, Tiago, Mainoli, Beatrice, Sampaio, Filipa, Miguel, Luís Silva, Borges, Margarida
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.25756/rpf.v13i2.272

Introduction: Non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) includes several types of skin cancer, with the most common types of tumors being basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). The current study aims to describe the landscape of NMSC in Portugal, based on real world data from both the public and private sectors.Methods: Two sub-studies are included in this work. In sub-study one, hospital episode statistics from the Hospital Morbidity Database were used to describe the disease within the public National Health Service. In sub-study two, histopathological data from Hospital CUF-Descobertas were used.Results: The analysis using hospital episode statistics from the public National Health Service revealed that, in 2018, the number of patients with BCC was 8152 and with SCC was 2631. The majority of these patients were males (53.8%). Two percent of patients register comorbid BCC and SCC in at least one episode in that year. Patients with SCC were, on average, older than patients with BCC (79.63 vs 74.25 years). The face was the most common location of the tumors for both types of cancer.The analysis based on data from Hospital CUF-Descobertas revealed that, between 2009 and 2019, 1145 patients, with at least one SCC tumor, underwent surgery, amounting to a total of 1470 tumors. Among thesepatients, 129 had synchronous tumors (11.3%), whereas 88 patients (7.7%) had metachronous tumors. Six thousand nine hundred forty-nine patients, with at least one BCC tumor, were identified, amounting to a total of 9909 tumors. Among these patients, 1116 patients had synchronous tumors (11.3%), whereas 902 patients had metachronous tumors (13.0%).Conclusion: It is clear from the analyses that the estimation of the number of patients versus the number of tumors may have an impact in the epidemiology of NMSC. Despite being common, there is still a gap in the epidemiological description of NMSC tumors.