Understanding early tumorigenic events have obvious diagnostic and prognostic implications, particularly in the skin since this is the site of more US cancer diagnoses than any other organ (Rogers et al., 2015). Actinic keratosis (AK) are dysplastic keratinocyte lesions characterized by irregularly shaped scaly papules frequently manifesting on sun-damaged skin, and are considered precursor lesions which can develop into cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC), the second most common keratinocyte cancer (Siegel et al., 2017). Delineating the molecular events that characterize transition from normal skin to AK and on to established skin cancer has been the focus of a growing number of studies employing various technologies to identify markers of both initiation and progression of AK and cSCC (Chitsazzadeh et al., 2016, Hameetman et al., 2013, Kim et al., 2021, Lambert et al., 2014, Padilla et al., 2010, Ra et al., 2011, Thomson et al., 2021, Zheng et al., 2021).