Epidemiologic studies of cancers of the skin

The aim of this thesis was to assess whether cigarette smoking, body mass index (BMI) and height are risk factors for basal cell carcinoma (BCC), cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) and melanoma. This research was conducted using data from the QSkin cohort, supplemented by linkage to various health databases, meta-analyses of observational studies as well as Mendelian randomisation analyses. The findings suggest that current smoking was associated with lower risk of BCC and melanoma. An increased risk of cSCC was found among current smokers. These findings also suggest that height but not BMI, is causally associated with melanoma.