Search

Chronic solar ultraviolet radiation (sUVR) exposure leads to an increased incidence of non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) development, particularly when accumulated over decades. Workers in certain industries, such as construction, agriculture, postal workers, and the military, are at higher risk due to cumulative sUVR exposure in their line of work. By assessing the relationship between sUVR exposure in outdoor workers and their skin cancer risk and defining methods of prevention, clinicians can offer focused sun protection counseling to this unique population. PubMed was used to perform a literature review to address the following research questions: 1. How is ultraviolet radiation measured? 2. What is the modern utility of the ultraviolet index in modifying sun protection behaviors in outdoor industry workers? 3. What is the risk of non-melanoma skin cancer development in individuals working in outdoor occupations? 4. What is the prevalence of skin cancer among outdoor workers? 5. Is the number of nevi and solar lentigines elevated among individuals employed in outdoor occupations? The literature suggests that individuals in outdoor occupations are exposed to UV levels that often surpass safety limits for occupational UVR exposure, increasing their risk of developing skin cancer and precursor and pigmented lesions. Individuals in high-risk occupations experience significantly higher levels of sUVR exposure than their indoor worker counterparts, increasing their risk of malignant cutaneous transformation. Accordingly, these individuals must be counseled on effective solar protection methods, and employers should advocate for actionable change., (© 2023 The Authors. International Journal of Dermatology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of the International Society of Dermatology.)

Numerous epidemiologic studies have reported positive associations between higher nevus counts and internal cancers. Whether this association represents a true relationship or is due to bias or confounding by factors associated with both nevus counts and cancer remains unclear. We used germline genetic variants for nevus count to test whether this phenotypic trait is a risk-marker for cancer. We calculated polygenic risk scores (PRS) for nevus counts using individual-level data in the UK Biobank (n = 394 306) and QSkin cohort (n = 17 427). The association between the nevus PRS and each cancer site was assessed using logistic regression adjusted for the effects of age, sex and the first five principal components. In both cohorts, those in the highest nevus PRS quartile had higher risks of melanoma than those in the lowest quartile (UK Biobank odds ratio [OR] 1.42, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.29-1.55; QSkin OR 1.58, 95% CI: 1.29-1.94). We also observed increases in risk of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) associated with higher nevus PRS quartiles (BCC UK Biobank OR 1.38, 95% CI: 1.33-1.44; QSkin OR 1.20, 95% CI: 1.05-1.38 and SCC UK Biobank OR 1.41, 95% CI: 1.28-1.55; QSkin OR 1.44, 95% CI: 1.19-1.77). We found no consistent evidence that nevus count PRS were associated with risks of developing internal cancers. We infer that associations between nevus counts and internal cancers reported in earlier observational studies arose because of unmeasured confounding or other biases., (© 2021 UICC.)