Skin Cancer
Data analyses and reports
- Detailed incidence and mortality data, lifetime risk, prevalence and survival statistics:
Malignant melanoma of the skin
Non-melanoma skin cancer
Basal cell carcinoma of the skin
Squamous cell carcinoma of the skin - A summary table of the main statistics for malignant melanoma of the skin.
Below are the most recently updated data. Please note:
- Within each page some files are quite large and may take a few minutes to download
- You may need to use the drop-down menus within the spreadsheets to define your selections of 'Area of Residence', 'Sex', and 'Cancer site/type' to find the data that you require.
Malignant melanoma of the skin: ICD-10 C43
Incidence:
Annual incidence 
[1753KB] (most recent 25 years) by age, sex, network and health board
Five year summary of incidence [280KB] by age, sex, network and health board
Mortality:
Annual mortality [1151KB] (most recent 25 years) by age, sex, network and health board
Five year summary of mortality [207KB] by age, sex, network and health board
Survival:
Survival [33KB] (by age and sex) at 1, 3, 5 & 10 years after diagnosis (1983 onwards)
Survival summary 
[450KB] and interpretation at 1 & 5 years after diagnosis (1983 onwards)
Prevalence:
Cancer prevalence [61KB]
Lifetime risk:
Lifetime risk [45KB] of cancer by age and sex
Deprivation:
Incidence and mortality by deprivation category [29KB]
Non-melanoma skin cancer: ICD-10 C44
Incidence:
Annual incidence [1753KB] (most recent 25 years) by age, sex, network and health board
Five year summary of incidence [280KB] by age, sex, network and health board
Mortality:
Annual mortality [1151KB] (most recent 25 years) by age, sex, network and health board
Five year summary of mortality [207KB] by age, sex, network and health board
Prevalence:
Cancer prevalence [61KB]
Basal cell carcinoma of the skin: ICD-10 C44 M-8090-8098
Incidence:
Annual incidence [1753] (most recent 25 years) by age, sex, network and health board
Five year summary of incidence [280KB] by age, sex, network and health board
Prevalence:
Cancer prevalence [61KB]
Squamous cell carcinoma of the skin: ICD-10 C44 M-8050-8078, 8083-8084
Incidence:
Annual incidence [1753KB] (most recent 25 years) by age, sex, network and health board
Five year summary of incidence [280KB] by age, sex, network and health board
Prevalence:
Cancer prevalence [61KB]
Summary statistics for malignant melanoma of the skin
| Scotland | Males | Females |
|---|---|---|
| Rank - incidence | 7 | 5 |
| Rank - mortality | 15 | 18 |
| Percentage frequency of all cancers | 3.7% | 4.0% |
| Number of new cases diagnosed in 2010 | 524 | 617 |
| Number of deaths recorded in 2010 | 114 | 81 |
| Change in incidence from 2000 to 2010 | 66.2% | 59.8% |
| Change in mortality from 2000 to 2010 | 40.4% | 28.2% |
| 1 year relative survival for patients diagnosed between 2003 and 2007 | 96.0% | 98.9% |
| 5 year relative survival for patients diagnosed between 2003 and 2007 | 87.8% | 95.5% |
Notes:
1. Survival figures are not age standardised.
2. Change in incidence and mortality is estimated by Poisson regression.
3. Non-melanoma skin cancer is often excluded from comparative analyses of cancer data, both because of concerns about the completeness of registration and a perception that cancers of this kind are rarely life threatening. Most non-melanoma skin cancers are detected early and can be treated on an outpatient basis (the lack of a discharge record for such patients is one of the reasons why registration of new cases is less complete than for other cancers, most of which involve hospitalisation). Nevertheless, case ascertainment is believed to be sufficient to justify publication of data on non-melanoma skin cancer in their own right. However, it should be noted that these data underestimate the true risk of non-melanoma skin cancer, not least because only the first basal cell carcinoma per patient is registered. It should be also noted that incidence data underestimate workload because, by definition, they include only new independent primary cancers, and therefore exclude re-biopsies, re-excisions and recurrent disease.
