Secondary Cancers
One of the most dangerous aspects of skin cancer isn’t just being diagnosed with skin cancer. Tough to believe, isn't it? But, the fact is, once you get skin cancer you have a 20-30% increased risk of developing another kind of cancer.27 Doctors call it a second primary cancer, or an SPC. We call it reason #507 to stay out of the tanning salon.
Secondary cancers are still a primary risk.
An SPC is a tumour that develops independently in another part of the body away from the initial skin cancer. This can occur months, even years after the skin cancer has been treated. If you’ve had skin cancer, you have a high risk of the cancer recurring or it spreading to other areas of your body.28
Melanoma is associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer, breast cancers, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, kidney and cancers of the mouth, while non-melanoma cancers can lead to a wide variety of different cancers–but predominantly head and neck cancers.29
