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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Melanoma risk gene identified

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Skin Cancer Foundation www.skincancer.org/melanoma

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If you have dark hair, dark eyes and tan easily, you might think you don't have to worry much about melanoma.

But new research shows that variations of a particular gene can raise the risk of this deadly skin cancer, even in people whose ability to easily tan may make them appear to be at low risk.

"Just because you tolerate sun exposure fairly well doesn't mean that you're not at increased risk for melanoma," said Peter Kanetsky, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania medical school and a co-author of the study.

The traditional risk factors for melanoma include having blond or red hair and being prone to sunburn.

But researchers who analyzed 779 patients with melanoma and compared them to 325 healthy people found that the presence of certain variants in the MC1R gene was linked with at least a twofold increased risk of melanoma that was largely confined to dark-eyed, dark-haired people. People with blond or red hair who had the gene variant did not have an elevated risk.

Eventually, genetic variations will be considered when assessing an individual's risk for melanoma, Kanetsky said. However, there is no commercially available screening test for MC1R yet.

The study was presented yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research.

Melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, is highly curable when caught early. In 2008, an estimated 8,420 people in the United States died from it, according to the American Cancer Society. There were about 62,000 new cases.

HealthDay and the Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.