title: Male pattern baldness and risk of incident skin cancer in a cohort of men.
abstract: We examined the association between male-pattern baldness and risk of incident skin cancer, including invasive melanoma, invasive squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), and basal cell carcinoma (BCC) in a prospective analysis, based on 36,032 participants from the Health Professionals' Follow-up Study. In 1992, participants reported their status of male-pattern baldness at age 45 years by choosing from five crown-view pictograms based on Norwood's classification. Diagnosis of skin cancers was reported biennially and information on melanoma and SCC was pathologically confirmed. We identified 327 melanoma cases, 1324 SCC cases, and 8438 BCC cases during the follow-up. Male-pattern baldness was not significantly associated with risk of incident melanoma, but was significantly associated with increased risk of SCC and BCC. The multivariate-adjusted hazard ratio (HR) (95% confidence interval, CI) for the highest category of baldness (frontal plus severe vertex baldness) was 1.33 (1.06-1.68) for SCC (ptrend= 0.001) and 1.23 (1.12-1.35) for BCC (ptrend< 0.0001), compared with no baldness. Analyses by body sites found significant associations between frontal plus moderate to severe vertex baldness and risk of melanoma (HR = 1.83, 95% CI: 1.01-3.34) and SCC (HR = 1.30, 95% CI: 1.02-1.66) at head and neck. The associations were particularly stronger for scalp melanoma (HR = 7.15, 95% CI: 1.29-39.42) and scalp SCC (HR = 7.09, 95% CI: 3.84-13.08), but not for non-scalp head and neck sites. Information on body sites was not available for BCC. In conclusion, male pattern baldness may be associated with increased risk of skin cancer, but the associations may only exist for those occurring at head and neck, particularly at scalp.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Brown University, Warren Alpert Medical School, Providence, RI. wen-qing_li@brown.edu.|Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Brown University, Providence, RI. wen-qing_li@brown.edu.
authors.forename: Wen-Qing
authors.initials: WQ
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Brown University, Warren Alpert Medical School, Providence, RI.|Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Brown University, Providence, RI.|Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
authors.forename: Eunyoung
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.affiliation: Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.|Department of Epidemiology, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN.|Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN.
authors.forename: Jiali
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Brown University, Warren Alpert Medical School, Providence, RI.|Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Brown University, Providence, RI.|Center for Dermatoepidemiology, VA Medical Center, Providence, RI.|Department of Dermatology, Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, RI.
authors.forename: Martin A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Weinstock
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Brown University, Warren Alpert Medical School, Providence, RI.|Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Brown University, Providence, RI.|Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.|Department of Dermatology, Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, RI.
authors.forename: Abrar A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Qureshi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000505:Alopecia / Q000150:complications*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012306:Risk; D012307:Risk Factors; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: basal cell carcinoma; head and neck; male pattern baldness; melanoma; scalp; squamous cell carcinoma