The cancer may be an itchy or tender reddish patch that comes and goes. Sometimes it's a pale splotch, like a scar, and sometimes a circular growth with a raised border and depressed center. Squamous cell carcinoma, the second most common skin cancer, accounts for about 100,000 cases each year. Like the other forms, it appears most often on the face, ears, hands and forearms. In the past 50 years, shoulders, back and chests on men, and the lower legs of women, have become increasingly popular sites for skin cancer due to deliberate exposure of those body parts to UV radiation.
Squamous cells make up most of the epidermis.
When they become cancerous, they may look like basal cell cancer, but the problem can also appear as a wart that bleeds and crusts over, bleeds and crusts over. Cancerous squamous cells grow faster and metastasize more frequently than basal cell carcinoma. Sun can damage skin in ways other than cancer. The earliest sign of skin damage is sunburn. Sunburns that continue to worsen several days after exposure may be a sun allergy.