My battle

@dorycheeto: I welcome you on behalf of Mayo Clinic Connect; I'm glad your search brought you here as I truly feel you will get the objective information you're seeking.

I'm sorry to hear you've been diagnosed and treated for SCC (squamous cell carcinoma) in addition to treating for psoriasis. In my past work in healthcare, I had been quite familiar with Skyrizi, a biologic which has been known to cause rashes or allergic reactions in some. However, to my knowledge and upon research including on drugs.com and various studies, there has not been any definitive correlation to cancers per se. There was one very detailed NIH study that I'm wondering if the site or forum you found may have had people conclude Skyrizi was the cause of their SCC. When searching for such answers online, it can be confusing to find reliable information so I'm uncertain what their reports were based upon.

Have you discussed your concerns about this prescription medication and/or psoriasis and the development of SCC with your rheumatologist or healthcare provider?

Susan makes good sense. Doing some footwork would be good. I have not heard drugs causing skin cancer. My family has most physical characteristics causing skin cancers. Mom and Dad both had either squamous or Melanoma or both. Squamous is treatable before it metastasizes. So many studies require a significant number of people but that is not to say the NIH study did not have people who may have been more susceptible to skin cancers. Honestly, at 60 i would have thought a skin cancer besides basal skin cancer would get me. No, breast cancer then MDS.
I hope you have spoken to your medical care provider.

Hello, thanks for responding to my post. Drugs.com is the page I seen where 4 other patients got cancer from the shot.
(Repost from that page, I saved it
Non-melanoma skin cancer (basal cell or squamous cell carcinoma) was reported in 4 patients receiving Skyrizi and one patient in the placebo group. Across all studies, 38% of subjects had received prior phototherapy. Phototherapy has been associated with an increased risk
of skin cancer.
• In the UltiMMa-2 study, one patient had a report of breast cancer.

@dorycheeto: I can understand the confusion in interpreting the results from this randomized, double-blind, placebo-and controlled study which is VERY scientific in nature. Internet searches can yield some alarming results when these are uncovered, can't they? This one is particularly high level.

I can see where one may draw the conclusion as you had that the BCC or SCC in the Skyrizi group was caused as a direct result of receiving the medication, however, from what I'm seeing from the reports, the percentage of cases were so small (4 out of 997 for representation of approximately 0.4%) so as not to be clinically significant. Essentially, testing positive for SCC in the group treated with Skyrizi may have just as likely be commonly found as those in the general population. (In other words, out of 1000 people, it would not be unusual for at least 4 people to be diagnosed with SCC during this time period). Even an individual in the placebo group of an unknown number of participants was found to have tested positive. The study also noted phototherapy and psoriasis have both been linked to or associated with a potentially higher risk in and of themselves. However, if the medication alone was the causative factor, the percentage rates would be expected to be higher in the control group receiving the Skyrizi.

The study concluded patients being treated with Skyrizi showed low occurrence rates of non-melanoma skin cancer development. I'd definitely encourage you to discuss these findings -and any others you may research - with your doctor, but does this help to put the study in context a bit more for you?