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Skin Cancer Caused By A Protein

Cancer is one deadly disease that has taken many lives in the recent years and most people are getting more prone to cancer. In a recent study, it is said that for patients who are suffering from skin cancer is due to the unexpected protein of sun exposure.

The research also said that drugs can stop the halt of the tumor by blocking the protein for skin cancer patients. This form of cancer is also known as Cutaneous Melanoma is becoming quite common today and to treat patients with this disease is becoming difficult too.

In the study, it is said that severe sunburns at an early age raises a person"s risk of cutaneous melanoma or skin cancer , but surprisingly the way in which those burns lead to cancer has remained elusive.

Edward De Fabo, a research professor at the Tropical Medicine at George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, D.C, and other researchers are trying to find out new ways in treating cutaneous melanoma or skin cancer. He stated," We have been examining the pathway between ultraviolet (UV) rays and melanoma for over a decade. We ultimately want to figure out what goes wrong so that we can fix it."

In the year, 2004, Edward De Fabo and his team mates came to a suspicion that UV-B radiation, as opposed to UV-A, triggered melanoma. But as they studied further on this topic of Skin Cancer they found that UV-B causes white blood cells called macrophages to migrate higher in the skin of mice and release an immune protein, interferon-y and realized that Instead of protecting the body like most interferon proteins do, interferon-y allowed tumors to grow by preventing the body"s natural immune response. Edward De Fabo later reported saying that, "We didn"t expect to see interferon-y aiding the tumor, instead of killing cancerous cells".

Story first published: Friday, February 4, 2011, 16:49 [IST]
Read more about: cancer disease health