The lack of a relationship between atopic dermatitis and nonmelanoma skin cancers.
BACKGROUND
Very little has been published on whether a relationship exists between atopic dermatitis (AD) and skin cancer.


OBJECTIVE
The goal of this study was to investigate whether individuals with AD are more likely than other patients with dermatologic conditions to develop nonmelanoma skin cancer.


METHODS
This was a case-control, mailed-survey study.


RESULTS
Of those contacted, 69.8% (3207 of 4591) filled out the survey. Of the control patients, 18.4% (254) had a history of AD as defined by the United Kingdom Working Party diagnosis criteria and composed 13.7% (210) of the cases. The unadjusted odds ratio of AD to nonmelanoma skin cancer was 0.70 (95% confidence interval 0.57-0.85). After fully adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity, and topical steroid use the odds ratio was 0.78 (0.61, 0.98). Using different definitions of AD had little effect on this result.


CONCLUSIONS
It does not appear that patients with a history of AD are more likely to develop nonmelanoma skin cancers than other patients with dermatologic conditions.
Department of Dermatology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 423 Guardian Drive, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Michael E
ME
Ming
Ross
R
Levy
Ole
O
Hoffstad
Jennifer
J
Filip
Bea B
BB
Abrams
Carlos
C
Fernández
David J
DJ
Margolis
D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003625:Data Collection; D003876:Dermatitis, Atopic / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010414:Pennsylvania / Q000453:epidemiology; D011177:Postal Service; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology