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Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. [3] [4] Cancer can be difficult to diagnose because its signs and symptoms are often nonspecific, meaning they may be general phenomena that do not point directly to a specific disease process. [5]
Cutaneous squamous-cell carcinoma is the second-most common cancer of the skin (after basal-cell carcinoma, but more common than melanoma). It usually occurs in areas exposed to the sun. Sunlight exposure and immunosuppression are risk factors for SCC of the skin, with chronic sun exposure being the strongest environmental risk factor. [26]
Skin cancer is the most commonly diagnosed form of cancer in humans. [11] [12] [13] There are three main types of skin cancers: basal-cell skin cancer (BCC), squamous-cell skin cancer (SCC) and melanoma. [1] The first two, along with a number of less common skin cancers, are known as nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC).
Basal-cell carcinoma (BCC), also known as basal-cell cancer, basalioma [7] or rodent ulcer, [8] is the most common type of skin cancer. [2] It often appears as a painless raised area of skin, which may be shiny with small blood vessels running over it. [1] It may also present as a raised area with ulceration. [1]
Squamous-cell carcinoma (SCC), also known as epidermoid carcinoma, comprises a number of different types of cancer that begin in squamous cells. [1] These cells form on the surface of the skin, on the lining of hollow organs in the body, and on the lining of the respiratory and digestive tracts. [1]
Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer; it develops from the melanin-producing cells known as melanocytes. [1] It typically occurs in the skin, but may rarely occur in the mouth, intestines, or eye (uveal melanoma). [1] [2] In women, melanomas most commonly occur on the legs; while in men, on the back. [2]
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This deep belief that cancer is necessarily a difficult and usually deadly disease is reflected in the systems chosen by society to compile cancer statistics: the most common form of cancer—non-melanoma skin cancers, accounting for about one-third of cancer cases worldwide, but very few deaths [236] [237] —are excluded from cancer ...