Background: Incidence of common types of skin cancers in India is not reported and its comparison with global load would be helpful statistics.
Aim: The aim of this study is to summarize and report recent skin cancer incidence in India and to compare it with the incidence globally.
Materials and methods: Age-specific rates and age-adjusted rates (AARs) of the incidence of skin cancer for all ages (0-75 years) were collected from India and the world, respectively, from the National Cancer Registry Programme and GLOBOCAN 2018.
Results: The AAR per 100,000 of melanoma of the skin was highest in the North region of India for both males and females with 1.62 and with 1.21, respectively. The incidence of nonmelanoma of the skin or other skin cancers for males was highest in the East region with 6.2 and for females in Northeast with 3.49. Among nonmelanoma, northeast region showed the maximum incidence for both male (75.6) and female (43.6) sexes. Globally, AAR of melanoma of skin for males was highest in the Western Pacific region with 36.9 and for the females; AAR was highest in the European region with 31.7. The incidence of nonmelanoma of the skin or other skin cancers for males was highest in the Western pacific region with 225.4 and 68.6 for females.
Conclusion: Summary of the incidence rates of melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancers which shows that though there are regional variations of incidence in India is lower than that of in the West.
Keywords: Incidence; melanoma; nonmelanoma; skin cancer.