Studies link sun, cancer benefits
February 6, 2005 (Press Release) --
Sunlight exposure, a major risk factor for the potentially deadly skin cancer melanoma, also might help victims survive that disease, new research indicates.
A second study indicates that exposure to sunlight might reduce the risk of getting cancer of the lymph glands.
Researchers say their findings do not mean people should rush out and start baking in the sun.
An editorial accompanying the studies said more research is needed about what people should do to gain sunlight's benefits without its downsides.
"Sunlight, particularly ultraviolet radiation, is a very well established human carcinogen," said Kathleen Egan of Vanderbilt University Medical Center. "Nothing in these papers should in any way detract from this message."
The reports, published last week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, provide clues to the development of these cancers and some factors that might slow or stop them.
Melanoma has been increasing in the past half-century in developed countries with Caucasian populations, and studies consistently have found sun exposure a risk factor.
A new look at 528 melanoma victims over five years found that increased sun exposure led to increased survivability, according to the study led by Marianne Berwick of the University of New Mexico.
"It's totally counterintuitive, and we're trying to investigate it," Berwick said. She now is doing a similar study of 3,700 melanoma patients worldwide.
"It's really strange, because sunburn seems to be one of the factors associated with improved survival, and that doesn't make much sense, so we think sunburn's a proxy for the kind of sun exposure that leads to melanoma. But there's so much we need to know," Berwick said in a telephone interview.
She said vitamin D, which the skin makes in response to sunlight, might be a factor. It can help regulate cell growth and help cells stop unneeded growth.
In the second study, a team led by Karin Ekstrom Smedby of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, studied 3,000 lymph-cancer patients and a similar number of people without lymph cancer in Denmark and Sweden.
They found that increased exposure to ultraviolet radiation through sunbathing and sunburns resulted in a reduced incidence of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Source: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/nation/10830519.htm
A second study indicates that exposure to sunlight might reduce the risk of getting cancer of the lymph glands.
Researchers say their findings do not mean people should rush out and start baking in the sun.
An editorial accompanying the studies said more research is needed about what people should do to gain sunlight's benefits without its downsides.
"Sunlight, particularly ultraviolet radiation, is a very well established human carcinogen," said Kathleen Egan of Vanderbilt University Medical Center. "Nothing in these papers should in any way detract from this message."
The reports, published last week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, provide clues to the development of these cancers and some factors that might slow or stop them.
Melanoma has been increasing in the past half-century in developed countries with Caucasian populations, and studies consistently have found sun exposure a risk factor.
A new look at 528 melanoma victims over five years found that increased sun exposure led to increased survivability, according to the study led by Marianne Berwick of the University of New Mexico.
"It's totally counterintuitive, and we're trying to investigate it," Berwick said. She now is doing a similar study of 3,700 melanoma patients worldwide.
"It's really strange, because sunburn seems to be one of the factors associated with improved survival, and that doesn't make much sense, so we think sunburn's a proxy for the kind of sun exposure that leads to melanoma. But there's so much we need to know," Berwick said in a telephone interview.
She said vitamin D, which the skin makes in response to sunlight, might be a factor. It can help regulate cell growth and help cells stop unneeded growth.
In the second study, a team led by Karin Ekstrom Smedby of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, studied 3,000 lymph-cancer patients and a similar number of people without lymph cancer in Denmark and Sweden.
They found that increased exposure to ultraviolet radiation through sunbathing and sunburns resulted in a reduced incidence of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Source: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/nation/10830519.htm
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