Risks for Skin and Other Cancers Up to 25 Years After Burn Injuries

Abstract

The tendency to malignant degeneration of burn scars, described in previous reports of case series, did not result in an excess of squamous cell carcinoma of the skin or of any other type of skin cancer during up to 25 years' follow up of a large unselected cohort of patients hospitalized for burn injuries.

Skin Cancer Arising in Scars: A Systematic Review

“…13,14 Both were cohort studies that considered only skin cancer in people with scarring as a result of burn injuries. No epidemiologic studies of skin cancer arising in other types of scars were found ( Table 1).…”

“…13 Two-thirds of the burn cohort were male, and 42% were younger than 20 when they sustained their injury. Thermal burns accounted for 80% of burns, the remaining being chemical burns, and the extremities were the most commonly affected sites.…”

“…The failure of the difference in SCC in burn scars to achieve significance was likely to reflect, to some degree, the young age of the cohort (almost half <20) at the time the burn was sustained. Also, although the duration of the Danish study was 25 years, 13 it is possible that this period was insufficient to cover the full latent period between exposure (time of burn injury) and disease (skin cancer development) in patients with burn scars, because clinical studies have reported mean latent periods ranging from 23 to 48 years. [16][17][18][19] The two population-based studies identified in this systematic review were well-defined cohorts accrued through national hospital inpatient registration.…”

“…It has been suggested that, rather than increasing the rate at which skin cancer is initiated, burn scar tissue may increase tumor progression in cells in which cancer is already initiated, 13 although in temperate climates, this would apply only to adults. Clinical and epidemiologic evidence linking inflammation and skin cancer derives from studies of Marjolin's ulcer and other nonhealing wounds, including those associated with lupus erythematosus and osteomyelitis, 20 in which malignant transformation occurs in association with the prolonged cell proliferation of chronic inflammation.…”

Burn scar pleomorphic sarcoma—case report

“…The term Marjolin's ulcer (MU) is used to denote the malignancies, predominantly squamous cell carcinomas, which develop in scars and chronic wounds [1][2][3].…”