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Stockholm/Albuquerque (pte018/02.02.2005/11:00) - Sunshine could help prevent certain cancers from growing, according to two new studies. As the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk reports, one of the studies has found that it helped beat the deadly skin cancer malignant melanoma. The other one has found that the sun helped with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. This could be due to the vitamin D made by sun-exposed skin, reports the Journal of the National Cancer Insitute. However, experts warn that too much sun could cause cancer and have advised people to protect themselves against sun damage.
In the lymphoma study, Swedish researchers at the Karolinska Insitute http://www.ki.se and Uppsala University, as well as scientists from Denmark, found that UV rays from the sun and sun lamps reduced the risks of developing cancer by 30-40 per cent. These findings were based on interviews with over 3,000 lymphoma patients and 3,000 healthy members of the public. Researchers at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque http://www.unm.edu examined the influence of sun exposure on the risk of dying from malignant melanoma. They found that melanoma patients with higher levels of sun exposure were less likely to die than fellow melanoma sufferers. Previous studies have suggested that skin cells damaged by the sun commit suicide, thus cutting the risk of developing cancer. The authors of the study suggest that it could be the increased productions of vitamin D that reduces the cancer risk.
According to Cancer Research UK (CRUK) experts, it was also possible that patients who already had melanoma and a lot of sun exposure were prone to a less aggressive tumour type. "We should view with caution the assertion that sunlight may be beneficial for melanoma overall," said Julia Newton Bishop from CRUK. "There is no doubt that sun exposure causes melanoma in the first place. Therefore, the public health message should remain unchanged. It is important to remember that covering up during the peak hours of sunshine, seeking shade and wearing factor 15 plus sunscreen are still the best ways to avoid sunburn that can lead to cancer," she added.
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