In a January 2019 research paper published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology our research team of curious dermatologists took a look at our experience in treating skin cancer in nonwhite patients.
In that paper we give some important background- “as the majority of the U.S. population will consist of nonwhite individuals by the year 2043, it is essential that both physicians and patients are educated about skin cancer in nonwhite individuals.”
Our team looked at 7 years of patient charts and found that squamous cell carcinoma was the most commonly diagnosed skin cancer in black and asian populations.
Interestingly we found that smokers were diagnosed with skin cancer on average 12 years earlier than former smokers and almost 10 years earlier than non-smokers.
Our team believes the importance of photoprotection in nonwhite individuals should not go overlooked. We also noted that skin cancer in nonwhites is sometimes in areas that haven’t seen much sun, like the genital areas, and we believe more emphasis should be placed on looking for skin cancer in these often over looked areas.
More information about this paper can be found by clicking here.