Rare skin tumors

In the Caucasian population the skin is by far more frequently affected by cancer than any other organ. In addition, the continuously ongoing increase in the incidence of skin cancer is unparalleled by other cancers. Besides basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and malignant melanoma, more than 70 further tumor types are known, each characterized by an individual grade of malignancy. Chronic skin exposure to increasingly aggressive UV irradiation and the high percentage of elderly people explain the rise of formerly very rare malignancies such as the Merkel cell carcinoma. Furthermore, oncogenic viruses, e.g. human herpes virus 8 (HHV-8), papillomaviruses (e.g. HPV 5, 8, 16, 18 and 38) and polyomaviruses, play a role in the etiopathogenesis of Kaposi sarcoma, bowenoid papulosis and Merkel cell carcinoma. Details of this role still await elucidation. Despite the increase in therapeutic options, palliation is often still the best success that can be achieved for patients with advanced skin cancer. This emphasizes the need for more progress in primary and secondary prevention for which again the skin is much more predestined than any other organ.