What is AIM at Skin Cancer?
AIM at Skin Cancer is the website for the Skin Cancer Education and Research Foundation, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to helping you understand nonmelanoma skin cancer, your diagnosis, your staging, and your treatment options. The goal of these resources is to get you the best care and outcome possible.
This website contains valuable information about prevention, risk factors, and treatment options for the two most common types of nonmelanoma skin cancer: basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell skin cancer. We offer symposiums at leading cancer centers around the country, which are live-streamed so that anyone, anywhere, can participate. Our “Ask a Skin Cancer Nurse” is a vital resource for individuals seeking information and support regarding skin cancer.
If you are dealing with skin cancer, you are not alone. Worldwide and in the U.S., skin cancer is the most common type of cancer. In fact, more people are diagnosed with skin cancer every year in the U.S. than all other cancers combined. The most recent data indicates that there were more than 6.35 million people treated for nonmelanoma skin cancer around the globe in 2019.1 This number is an estimate—at least for the portion of people treated in the U.S., because the U.S. does not track nonmelanoma skin cancer numbers in a database, as we do for other cancers such as melanoma and breast cancer. Earlier data from 2012 indicates more than 5.4 million cases of nonmelanoma skin cancer were treated in 3.3 million people in the U.S. in 2012, but again this number is an estimate, and it is over ten years old.2
AIM at Skin Cancer is here to support you during your diagnosis, treatment, and beyond.
For information on melanoma—the deadliest form of skin cancer—please visit AIM at Melanoma, the most comprehensive website available on melanoma. It was founded in 2004 and has served the melanoma community for decades. After many years of being approached by nonmelanoma skin cancer patients, families, caregivers, and physicians asking for information and resources for nonmelanoma skin cancers as we provide for melanoma, we created the Skin Cancer Education and Research Foundation, this website, and all of the accompanying resources.
The Skin Cancer Education & Research Foundation thanks Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Sanofi Genzyme, and Replimune, as well as Genentech, a Member of the Roche Group, and Merck and Co, Inc. for support of this website.
Thank you to Laura K. Ferris, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Dermatology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and Sunandana Chandra, MD, MS, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, for their clinical review of this website.
1. Kocarnik JM, Compton K, Dean FE, et al. Cancer Incidence, Mortality, Years of Life Lost, Years Lived With Disability, and Disability-Adjusted Life Years for 29 Cancer Groups From 2010 to 2019: A Systematic Analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. JAMA Oncol. 2022;8(3):420-444. doi: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2021.6987.
2. Rogers HW, Weinstock MA, Feldman SR, et al. Incidence estimate of nonmelanoma skin cancer (keratinocyte carcinomas) in the US population, 2012. JAMA Dermatol. 2015;151(10):1081-1086. doi: 10.1001/jamadermatol.2015.1187.
