Original articleBurden of disease caused by keratinocyte cancer has increased in The Netherlands since 1989

BackgroundKeratinocyte cancer is the most common cancer among Caucasians.ObjectiveWe sought to study time trends of the burden of disease attributable to keratinocyte cancer in The Netherlands.MethodsData of all patients with newly diagnosed keratinocyte cancer (ie, squamous cell carcinoma and basal cell carcinoma) were obtained from the population-based Netherlands Cancer Registry and the Eindhoven Cancer Registry (1989-2008). Population structure, mortality data, and life expectancy data were extracted from Statistics Netherlands. The disability-adjusted life-years (DALY) was the sum of the years of life lived with disability and the years of life lost.ResultsThe world standardized rate of keratinocyte cancer has doubled and was 103 and 94 per 100,000 person-years for males and females in 2004 to 2008, respectively. DALYs as a result of basal cell carcinoma increased by 124% and DALYs as a result of squamous cell carcinoma increased by 66% from 1989 to 1993. Keratinocyte cancer accounted for a total loss of 19,913 DALYs (15,369 years of life lived with disability and 4544 years of life lost) between 2004 and 2008.LimitationsOnly the first keratinocyte cancer was included in this study.ConclusionKeratinocyte cancer is a large burden to the Dutch society. Because incidence rates of keratinocyte cancer continue to increase, the management becomes even more challenging.