WEDNESDAY, Jan. 24, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- The incidence of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) affecting the eyelids is rising in England, according to a study published online Jan. 23 in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.
James Wawrzynski, from Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in the United Kingdom, and colleagues used data from the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service to identify all cases of eyelid SCC in England between 2000 and 2014.
The researchers found that there were 4,022 patients in England diagnosed with a first episode of SCC affecting the eyelids during the 15-year study period. The age-standardized number of reported cases rose by a mean of 0.0137 cases per 100,000 population per year, which is equivalent to approximately a 2-percent-per-year increase in SCC incidence. There was an exponential correlation between age and incidence, with an approximate doubling of the risk for every decade over 60 years of age. In men, the relative risk of eyelid SCC was 1.9 compared to women. SCC risk was not associated with social deprivation quintile by income.
"We show that the epidemiology of eyelid SCC has strong similarities with SCC of the skin and with eyelid basal cell carcinoma but less so with cutaneous melanoma," the authors write. "The data presented here represent the only recent comprehensive evaluation of the demographics of eyelid SCC in England over more than a decade."
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