Rates of the most common types of skin cancer increased by up to 39% between 2002 and 2011, a new report on skin cancer trends has shown.

According to the report by the National Cancer Registry of Ireland (NCRI), which has just been published, between 1994 and 2011, an average of 6,899 cases of invasive skin cancer were diagnosed each year in this country. Just over 8% of these were malignant melanoma - the most deadly form of skin cancer.

The remainder are known as non-melanoma skin cancers and almost all of these were either basal cell carcinoma (BCC) or squarmous cell carcinoma (SCC).

The report noted that between the mid-1990s and the early 2000s, ‘there was little overall change in incidence rate for non-melanoma skin cancer, with rates in females remaining fairly level and a slight decline in males'.

"However, rates of both BCC and SCC have subsequently increased and for both sexes, rates in 2011 were between 33% and 39% higher than those in 2002," it said.

However, despite the high number of cases diagnosed every year, ‘there are very few deaths from non-melanoma skin cancer'. In fact, less than 50 deaths per year are linked to the disease, which accounts for just 0.6% of all cancer deaths in Ireland.

The NCRI noted that while sun exposure is known to be the main risk factor for all skin cancers, ‘it has been reported that BCC may be more strongly related to acute sunburn events in childhood and intermittent adult exposure, while SCC is mostly a result of chronic long-term occupational sun exposure'.

Meanwhile when it came to the location of skin cancer tumours, this provided more evidence ‘that the type of sun exposure may be an important risk factor'.

"The majority of all tumours - BCC and SCC - in both sexes were located on the face, the area which experiences most sun exposure overall," the report said.

When it came to the age of those affected, non-melanoma skin cancer was found to be more common in older people, with most patients over the age of 60.

The report also found that incidence rates for BCC were much higher than the national average in the areas around Dublin, with the highest rates in the country in Dublin and the mid-Leinster area. The lowest rates were in the west of the country.

With SCC, the highest incidence rates were in Dublin and the north east, as well as the south, while the lowest rates were again in the west.

The report emphasised that non-melanoma skin cancer is ‘highly treatable'.

"Almost all patients in Ireland between 1994 and 2010 were treated by simple surgical removal of the tumour with little other intervention. Radiotherapy was administered to less than 10% of patients," it said.