British Association of Dermatologists

Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in the UK, with 1-in-5 people expected to be diagnosed in their lifetime and increasing incidence rates.

The BAD is a professional membership body for dermatologists in the UK with a mission of advocating ‘Healthy Skin for All’ for the public benefit. This strategic partnership aims to promote the best standards of care for people with skin conditions, reducing regional variation and improve equality of access to care for all. The NDRS national cancer data provides a valuable resource for understanding skin cancer care and provides significant opportunities for research.

The BAD-NDRS partnership and steering committee were established in 2020 and meet three times a year to discuss the future direction of the partnership and evaluate project ideas for priority and feasibility.

The main focus is improving the quality of skin cancer data and encouraging the inclusion of skin cancer statistics in national publications.

The BAD-NDRS partnership has an evolving work programme responding to the needs from the BAD and steering committee.

Current work includes:  

1. An analysis of patients by broad ethnic group diagnosed with skin cancer between 2013 and 2020 in England. Describing differences in incidence and patient demographics (age, gender, deprivation, etc.) and tumour specific details (stage, type etc.) by ethnic group.
2. A project to identify and describe patients who develop multiple Basal Cell Carcinomas and Squamous Cell Carcinomas of the skin in national data diagnosed between 2013 and 2020 in England.
3. Analysis and providing context to underserved populations, such as, skin cancer in under 25-year-olds, skin cancer in organ transplant recipients, and highlighting rarer cancers such as digital papillary adenocarcinoma or acral lentiginous melanoma.

The partnership has delivered the following projects:

Get Data Out

The Get Data Out (GDO) skin partition and data on incidence, survival, treatment, and routes to diagnosis on all registered skin tumours diagnosed between 2013-19 in England:

• Skin specific data on the CancerData website 
• B van Bodegraven, S Vernon, C Eversfield, Z C Venables and others. “Get Data Out” Skin: national cancer registry incidence and survival rates for all registered skin tumour groups for 2013-2019 in England. British Journal of Dermatology. February 2023.

Non melanoma skin cancers

Improving the methodology for counting basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) tumours to allow for a more accurate representation of the tumour burden in the UK.

Impact of COVID-19

Evaluation of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on skin cancer incidence in the UK using the rapid registration data set:

• Z. C. Venables, S. Ahmed, T. O. Bleiker, J. Broggio, and others. The impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on skin cancer incidence and treatment in England, 2020. British Journal of Dermatology. August 2021: volume 185, issue 2, pages 460–462

Geographic variations

Geographic variation of skin cancer by cancer alliance:

• A Ascott, B van Bodegraven, S Vernon, C H Orteu, Z C Venables. The geographical variation of melanoma, basal and squamous cell carcinoma in England. British Journal of Dermatology. March 2023.

Porocarcinomas

Epidemiology of porocarcinoma in England, a rare cutanous malignancy with sweat gland involvement:

• J Joshy, B van Bodegraven, Z C Venables,  and others. Epidemiology of porocarcinoma in England 2013-18: a population-based registry study. Clinical and Experimental Dermatology. April 2023.

Epidemiological trends

A summary and full report on the incidence and epidemiological trends of basal cell carcinomas and cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas in the UK 2013-2018:

• M Kwiatkowska, S Ahmed, MR Ardern-Jones and others. A summary of the updated report on the incidence and epidemiological trends of keratinocyte cancers in the UK 2013-2018. British Journal of Dermatology. February 2022: volume 186, issue 2, pages 367-369.
• M Kwiatkowska, S Ahmed, MR Ardern-Jones and others. An updated report on the incidence and epidemiological trends of keratinocyte cancers in the United Kingdom 2013-2018. Skin Health and Disease. August 2021: volume 1, issue, e61.

We are continuously developing new project ideas. Please get in touch with the BAD research team on [email protected] if you have an important research question that you feel is unanswered.

You can also find out more by visiting the British Association of Dermatologists website.