Introduction: Skin cancer in adults is a multifactorial event that increases considerably every year. Goal: To relate risk factors with cancer in adults who attend the outpatient service of the IESS Machala General Hospital in Ecuador, from January to December 2019. Materials and methods: Descriptive, correlational research, nonexperimental prospective and crosssectional design. Regarding the instrument, a questionnaire of risk factors was applied, which contains 11 questions about skin cancer, whose authorship corresponds to Morales Martha et al. Results: Descriptive and inferential statistics (Spss 23) were used. The results obtained were: General Characteristics: Average age 67.61+/-14.61 years. Predominantly: female sex 54.1%, marital status 31.5% married, level of education 47.2% secondary, site of injury: 15.1% Region: Dorso Nasal, 10.8%, Right Malar, 8, 1%. Risk Factors skin color 50.7% white, normal hair color: 34.2% dark brown, eye color: 50.7%, dark color, skin reddened by the sun: 71.0% said yes, Relatives with cancer 86.3% did not have, Work outdoors 50.7% do it, have lived in areas of intense sun 100% answered yes, practice activities outdoors 58.9% do, consumption of well water for more than 10 years: 65.8% do not consume, 100% have not received radiotherapy for cancer, the most frequent diagnoses by Pathological Anatomy: Solid Basal Cell Carcinoma (CBC) 57.5%, Melanoma 4, 1%, Squamous cell carcinoma 2.7%, T-cell lymphocyte 1.4%. The only risk factor associated with skin cancer was outdoor work (p=0.001). There was no relationship between the cancer site and the pathological diagnosis. Conclusion: Outdoor work is a risk factor associated with skin cancer in Ecuador.
