CLL Linked to Higher Skin Cancer Risk and Worse Outcomes in Nationwide Study

Key Takeaways

• Patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) had approximately double the 10-year risk of skin cancer compared with matched controls.
• The largest absolute increases were observed for basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma.
• Skin cancer–specific metastasis and death were more frequent in CLL, although absolute risks remained low.

Patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) face a significantly elevated risk of developing skin cancer, according to a nationwide Danish cohort study spanning three decades.

Study investigators analyzed registry data from 1990 to 2020 and included 8,352 patients with CLL and 41,760 matched controls without CLL, excluding individuals with prior skin cancer or immunosuppression.

Over a 10-year period, the absolute risk of any skin cancer was 13.5% in the CLL cohort vs 6.9% in controls, corresponding to an absolute risk difference (ARD) of 6.6 percentage points (P < 0.001). Basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma accounted for the majority of cases, with ARDs of 3.2 and 3.3 percentage points, respectively (both P < 0.001). Increased risks were also observed across other skin cancer subtypes, although these were less common.

Patients with CLL demonstrated higher risks of skin cancer–specific metastasis (0.7% vs 0.1%; ARD, 0.6 percentage points; P < 0.001) and death (0.3% vs 0.1%; ARD, 0.2 percentage points; P = 0.004). Despite these relative increases, absolute risks remained low, particularly in the context of substantially higher all-cause mortality in the CLL population (56.3% vs 39.3%; ARD, 17.0 percentage points; P < 0.001).

“Patients with CLL had an increased risk of developing skin cancer, mainly basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma,” the authors wrote. “Skin cancer–specific metastasis and death were also more frequent among patients with CLL, although the absolute risk remained low given markedly higher all-cause mortality.”

Source: Blomberg Drejøe AM, et al. JAMA Dermatology. 2026. Doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.2026.0355