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Background Recent studies suggest that cutaneous melanoma mortality rates in Spain are stabilizing and even decreasing in younger cohorts. Objectives To analyse mortality rates of melanoma from the last 40 years, focusing on changes related with the development of new therapeutic approaches. Methods Death records and mid‐year population data were collected from the National Statistics Institute. By using the direct method, age‐standardized mortality rates were calculated for overall population and for each sex and age group. Significant changes in mortality trends were identified by Joinpoint regressions. The independent effects of age, period and cohort (APC) and potential years of life lost (PYLL) due to melanoma were also analysed. Results Age‐standardized melanoma mortality rates rose in Spain from 0.78 to 2.13 deaths per 100 000 from the first to the last quinquennium of the study (1979–1983 to 2014–2018) for the overall population. After a marked increase until 1995, mortality rates levelled off. Following this stabilization, from 2015 to 2018 there was a decrease in mortality rates for the overall population (average annual per cent change (AAPC): −4.3, not significant), more accused in males over 64 years old (yo). A period effect was observed from the beginning of 21st century, with mortality rates dropping to date. Conclusions There is a decrease in melanoma mortality rates from 2015 in all age groups that confirms previous trends in mortality in younger cohorts. Improvement in diagnosis and development of new therapies for advanced melanoma may have a crucial role in this event. Close monitoring of melanoma mortality rates is necessary to confirm these trends.

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Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common skin cancer, and its incidence is rising. Millions of benign biopsies are performed annually for BCC diagnosis, increasing morbidity, and healthcare costs. Non‐invasive in vivo technologies such as multiphoton microscopy (MPM) can aid in diagnosing BCC, reducing the need for biopsies. Furthermore, the second harmonic generation (SHG) signal generated from MPM can classify and prognosticate cancers based on extracellular matrix changes, especially collagen type I. We explored the potential of MPM to differentiate collagen changes associated with different BCC subtypes compared to normal skin structures and benign lesions. Quantitative analysis such as frequency band energy analysis in Fourier domain, CurveAlign and CT‐FIRE fibre analysis was performed on SHG images from 52 BCC and 12 benign lesions samples. Our results showed that collagen distribution is more aligned surrounding BCCs nests compared to the skin's normal structures (p < 0.001) and benign lesions (p < 0.001). Also, collagen was orientated more parallelly surrounding indolent BCC subtypes (superficial and nodular) versus those with more aggressive behaviour (infiltrative BCC) (p = 0.021). In conclusion, SHG signal from type I collagen can aid not only in the diagnosis of BCC but could be useful for prognosticating these tumors. Our initial results are limited to a small number of samples, requiring large‐scale studies to validate them. These findings represent the groundwork for future in vivo MPM for diagnosis and prognosis of BCC.