WEDNESDAY, May 13, 2026 (NewsDay News) — Malignant skin cancers show different regional patterns, according to a research letter published online May 13. JAMA Dermatology.
Youyou Zhou, MD, Ph.D., from Shenzhen People’s Hospital in China, and colleagues analyzed the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2023 data set to summarize the epidemiology, subgroup patterns, and projections of malignant skin cancer to 2050.
The researchers found a geographic variation in skin cancer in 2023, with disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) concentrated in areas of high sociodemographic quality (SDI). A similar trend was observed for prevalence; melanoma was highest in the Pacific, and squamous cell cancer peaked in high-income Western countries, particularly the United States; basal cell carcinoma was highest in Oceania, North America, and Northern Europe. Trends in SDI levels varied from 1990 to 2023; a steady increase in incidence was observed in low and medium SDI regions with a significant increase in melanoma. Similar upward trends were observed in the high-income region of Asia and the Pacific. A divergent pattern was observed in the high-income region of North America, with a decline in melanoma (-10.5 percent) and an increase in squamous cell carcinoma and basal cell carcinoma (154.1 and 34.6 percent, respectively). The global burden is projected to continue to increase until 2050, with melanoma DALYs increasing from 2 million to more than 3.3 million from 2025 to 2050, squamous cell carcinoma DALYs increasing from 1.2 to 4.0 million from 2025 to 2050, and squamous cell carcinoma increasing in 2055. Trajectories across all three cancer regions for low and medium SDI are provided.
“This GBD-based global analysis captures the increasing burden of low- and middle-SDI areas — populations underrepresented in established national income-level inventories,” the authors wrote.
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