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Erythronychia is a term that covers a range of pathological patterns of red discoloration of the subungual tissues. The intensity of the red contrasts with the pale pink of the nail bed or the cream color of the lunula. It is typically due to one or more actors that include inflammation, vessel proliferation, and engorgement and focal thinning of the nail plate. Longitudinal erythronychia presents with longitudinal red bands in the nail plate that commence in the matrix and extend to the point of separation of the nail plate and nailbed. Neoplastic, inflammatory, scarring, or idiopathic processes involve the distal nail matrix, producing a groove in the ventral nail plate. The nail bed then occupies this groove and accentuates the red color of the nail bed, producing a red streak. Longitudinal erythronychia may be specific to one nail or involve multiple nails.When longitudinal erythronychia involves one nail, it may be caused by benign conditions, such as onychopapilloma, wart, warty dyskeratoma, glomus tumor, or a solitary lesion of lichen planus. Less commonly, it may be caused by malignancies, such as Bowen disease, invasive squamous cell cancer, melanoma in situ, and basal cell carcinoma. The most common causes of longitudinal erythronychia involving multiple nails are lichen planus and Darier disease. Less common etiologies are systemic amyloidosis, hemiplegia, graft-versus-host disease, and acantholytic epidermolysis bullosa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has reported that enough evidence from human and animal researches are validated to accept ultraviolet (UV) radiation as a human carcinogen. Ultraviolet radiation is an important toxic environmental agent but it does not penetrate under skin. Lifelong, human skin is exposed to UV. Chronic UV exposure leads to accumulation of oncogenic potential and development of skin cancer in later years. Squamous cell carcinoma, one of the three most common skin cancers is directly related to solar radiation. Lesions appear at sun-exposed sites and the risk of development of malignancy is related with cumulative exposure. On the other hand, malign melanoma and basal cell carcinoma seems to be related with intermittant but high dose solar exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]