Alcohol Might Cause Skin Cancer, Study Finds

Unbeknownst to many, skin cancer is the most common cancer across the United States. skin cancer or melanoma affect one in five Americans. The Skin Cancer Foundation notes that those who live pass 65 year old are 40 to 50 percent likely to develop either basal cell carcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma at least once.

Skin cancer is one of the several types of the condition that is curable, according to Cancer.org. However, it spreads and progresses much faster than other forms of cancer. Needless to say, research surrounding the causes and predisposition to melanoma is imperative.

Fortunately, more and more information about this type of cancer has been discovered in the last few years. In fact, recently, a scientist from Brown University published a research demonstrating how one peculiar factor affects development of skin cancer.

Eunyoung Cho, an associate professor of dermatology in Brown University, conducted a study surrounding the relationship of alcohol consumption and the development of melanoma. Cho and her team used data from a long tailed study involving 210,252 participant who were followed for an average of eighteen years. A questionairre was administered in order to gauge their alcohol consumption.

The finding showed that the risk of melanoma increases by 14 percent when the participants drink at least one serving of white wine per day. Interestingly, no other forms of alcohol seems to affect the predisposition to skin cancer.

Cho was quick to explain how the results of the study were just as surprising for her as it is for the readers. The scientist however clarified that the clinical significance of the research has yet to be definitively proven. However, it can be used as a guideline in reducing the risk of skin cancer.

"The clinical and biological significance of these findings remains to be determined, but for motivated individuals with other strong risk factors for melanoma, counseling regarding alcohol use may be an appropriate risk-reduction strategy to reduce risks of melanoma as well as other cancers," explained Cho as reported by Eureka Alert.