A scientist examines a dish under a microscope in a California lab
© AFP/Getty Images/File Sandy Huffaker

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The researchers, led by University of South Carolina medical doctor Anthony Alberg, said that the risk of coming down with another form of cancer doubles for people who have a history of benign, non-melanoma skin cancer.

They compared the histories over 16 years of 769 people diagnosed with non-melanoma skin cancers, with more than 18,000 people who did not have cancer in the period.

The base figures showed that the skin-cancer sufferers in the study were 3.8 times as likely to be struck with another cancer.

After controlling for other factors such as sex, age, size and habits, the researchers placed the risk at about double.

The link was even more striking for the younger people surveyed, those 25-44, according to the study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Skin cancer is by far the most common type of cancer, newly affecting about one million people each year in the United States alone, according to the American Cancer Society.

©AFP