Basal-cell carcinoma
Basal-cell cancer is a very common skin cancer. It is much more common in fair-skinned individuals with a family history of basal-cell cancer and increases in incidence closer to the equator or at higher altitude. There are approximately 800,000 new cases yearly in the United States alone. Up to 30% of Caucasians develop basal-cell carcinomas in their lifetime. In Canada, the most common skin cancer is basal-cell carcinoma (as much as one third of all cancer diagnoses), affecting 1 in 7 individuals over a lifetime.
Ovarian cancer
Germ cell tumors of the ovary develop from the ovarian germ cells. Germ cell tumor accounts for about 30% of ovarian tumors, but only 5% of ovarian cancers, because most germ-cell tumors are teratomas and most teratomas are benign. Malignant teratomas tend to occur in older women, when one of the germ layers in the tumor develops into a squamous cell carcinoma. Germ-cell tumors tend to occur in young women (20s–30s) and girls, making up 70% of the ovarian cancer seen in that age group. Germ-cell tumors can include dysgerminomas, teratomas, yolk sac tumors/endodermal sinus tumors, and choriocarcinomas, when they arise in the ovary. Some germ-cell tumors have an isochromosome 12, where one arm of chromosome 12 is deleted and replaced with a duplicate of the other. Most germ-cell cancers have a better prognosis than other subtypes and are more sensitive to chemotherapy. They are more likely to be stage I at diagnosis. Overall, they metastasize more frequently than epithelial ovarian cancers. In addition, the cancer markers used vary with tumor type: choriocarcinomas are monitored with beta-HCG and endodermal sinus tumors with alpha-fetoprotein.