Genetic Variation & Skin Cancer

As summer quickly approaches, we now have new research to help us protect ourselves from the dangers of skin cancer.

Three new studies just published in the May 2008 issue of the journal Nature Genetics may provide us with information that could ultimately lead to genetic screening that will help us assess our risk of skin cancer.

Even without genetic screening most of us know that that people with fair complexions are more prone to sunburn than those with darker complexions. New research now links certain variations in the genes that control the color of our skin, hair and eyes with an increased risk of melanoma and carcinoma, two potentially deadly forms of skin cancer.

See the new Suite101 article ‘Genetics of Pigment & Skin Cancer’ to read a summary of these new research findings or go to the source, Nature Genetics to find the studies themselves.