In a strange twist, researchers from the Sunlight, Nutrition, and Health Research Center (SUNARC) publishing in Anticancer Research have discovered that one’s risk of developing melanoma is inversely related to long-term smoking and exposure to UV light!

Which is to say, you’re less likely to get melanoma if you spend all day out in the sun smoking cigarettes. Of course, your chances of getting lung cancer will be greatly enhanced, but whatever.

It appeared to be the degree of ’skin aging’ – the loss of elastin and collagen that makes skin look old and saggy (a process that occurs sooner in smokers) – that conferred resistance to melanoma.

I don’t really know what to make of this! Personally, I’d avoid the cigarettes but continue with my fairly lax approach to UV protection. What do you think?

Here’s the abstract:

Skin aging from ultraviolet irradiance and smoking reduces risk of melanoma: epidemiological evidence.

Anticancer Res. 2008 Nov-Dec;28(6B):4003-8. PMID: 1919266

Grant WB.
Sunlight, Nutrition, and Health Research Center (SUNARC), P.O. Box 641603, San Francisco, CA 94164-1603, USA. wbgrant@infionline.net

Long-term smoking appears to be inversely correlated with development of melanoma. Chronic ultraviolet (UV) irradiance also reduces and/or delays the development of melanoma. Thus, a common process is indicated. To examine the link between smoking and melanoma, articles reporting the relation between incidence of lung cancer and melanoma for individuals were sought. A very strong inverse correlation (r = -0.96) was found between the standardized incidence ratios for lung cancer and melanoma, passing through the value of 1 for each with a slope of -0.74. Smoking increases skin aging or elastosis in a manner similar to that of UV irradiance. Development of elastosis seems to explain why long-term smoking and chronic UV irradiance reduce the risk of melanoma. Further work is required to elucidate the mechanism whereby elastosis retards and reduces the development of melanoma.