Background: The incidence of Non-melanoma skin cancer in whites is quite common (about one-third of all malignancies) as compared to blacks and Indians where it is rare (1 to 2%). This report being
about two patients with both SCC and BCC on the same hand in same environment provides an opportunity to investigate the cause. In India tropical weather causes plenty of Sun exposure to out door workers.Case Report: Two fruit hawkers were examined with a unique presentation of malignancy of two different histology. A 39 years old Muslim male with albinism was diagnosed having SCC lesion (T2, N0) over middle finger along with multiple BCC lesions (T2, N1) over the same hand after bearing keratotic lesions all over the Sun exposed body parts for 8-9 years. In second case, a 55 years old male Hindu without albinism was noted with 9-10 years history of keratotic eruptions over hands turning to BCC lesion over on right thumb and SCC lesion on right wrist for one year duration.Conclusions: In Case-1 (with albinism) accumulated Sun exposure hours were 38,400 and 67,000 hours in Case-2 (without albinism). After ruling out all other causative factors we zeroed on ultra-violet radiation in its causation. As there is wide variation in reports of sun exposure hours as cause behind SCC as well as BCC (ranging from 2600 to 54000 hrs) in world literature, these two tropical case notes provide a unique insight for environmental impact on skin cancer vis-a-visits inverse relationship with tanning capacity.

Keywords: SCC, BCC, sun-light, India, skin cancer