# Wart and Skin Cancer... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 13, 2002, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wart-and-skin-cancer/103467 "2002-04-13T19:28:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kwyjibo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/59ef9b/32.png) [@Kwyjibo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kwyjibo)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2002, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wart-and-skin-cancer/103467/1 "2002-04-13T19:28:43Z")
Can/do warts on the skin lead to skin cancer? I didn’t a search and found many references to anal or genital warts…but nothing that says that skin warts can cause cancer. (Also…would picking at warts cause cancer? The reason I am asking is my babysitter freaked my kids out but telling them this…) Thx. ---
**Author:** ![Kwyjibo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/59ef9b/32.png) [@Kwyjibo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kwyjibo)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2002, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wart-and-skin-cancer/103467/2 "2002-04-13T19:30:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kwyjibo \* > **I didn’t a search and…** I\*\*\* DID\*\*\* a search… ---
**Author:** ![scm1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2002, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wart-and-skin-cancer/103467/3 "2002-04-13T19:52:24Z")
from [http://www.healthservices.uwaterloo.ca/Topics%20Pages/warts.html](http://www.healthservices.uwaterloo.ca/Topics%20Pages/warts.html) “Malignant conversion of perianal warts may occur in some cases, as well as from nail warts or from plantar warts. Papillomas in the mouth , and in the larynx may become cancer. HPV is associated with development of skin cancer in HIV infected people”. from [http://www-micro.msb.le.ac.uk/335/Papillomaviruses.html](http://www-micro.msb.le.ac.uk/335/Papillomaviruses.html) “There may be some enhanced risk of skin warts exposed to U.V. light developing into invasive squamous cell carcinoma (very rare).” there are about 100 types of papilloma viruses, and they tend to be quite specific - the skin types are not the nasty ones implicated in cancer. From my reading, skin warts are quite harmless except in very rare cases ---
**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2002, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wart-and-skin-cancer/103467/4 "2002-04-13T20:28:36Z")
There are dozens (maybe hundreds) of kinds of papilloma viruses. Most cause benign warts and a few cause cancer. Some of the ones that lead to cancer do not produce visible warts. Cervical cancer is strongly associated with a few types of HPV that are sexually spread, but is not caused by the same virus subtypes that are responsible for visible genital warts. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2002, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wart-and-skin-cancer/103467/5 "2002-04-13T20:39:51Z")
Are any of the cancer-causing papilloma viruses associated specifically with melanoma? I think I read somewhere that when warts do become cancerous they still don’t tend to metastasize (since they are not specifically melanomas). But I don’t know if that’s accurate or even if that’s really the implication of what I read.