PhD defence Z.C. (Zoe) Venables

Brief summary of the doctoral thesis:

Skin cancers are the most common cancer in fair skinned populations such as the UK and the Netherlands.  Skin cancers can be grouped into melanomas and non melanoma skin cancers (NMSC).  Non melanoma skin cancers, despite the name are actually around ten times more common than melanomas and represent a diverse group of tumours, the most common type being basal cell carcinomas (which account for around 80% NMSC), followed by cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas (which account for around 20% of NMSC) then rare skin cancers such as merkel cell carcinoma (which account for <1% NMSC).  These NMSC have historically been neglected from national cancer registry reporting due to poor quality data for many reasons including their high count as well as their excellent prognosis meaning they have not been prioritised in the past however technological improvements mean that we now have high quality national epidemiological data on NMSC in the UK.  We use national cancer registry data to better understand how common NMSC are, who they tend to affect and what are the risk factors for poor outcomes such as metastasis and disease related death.  These data will hopefully inform and support future research so that we can improve patient care.