Childhood moles associated with skin cancer

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CHICAGO, Dec 19 (Reuters) Blue light treatments used to combat a jaundice that afflicts about half of healthy newborn infants can lead to childhood moles which are associated with skin cancer, according to doctors.

The finding does not mean such children actually run a higher risk of skin cancer but they should be checked as they grow older to make sure skin melanoma has not developed, said the report from hospitals in France, yesterday.

Exposure to light is the treatment of choice for a jaundice that occurs when bilirubin, a yellow pigment created as a byproduct of the normal breakdown of red blood cells, cannot yet be processed by a newborn's liver.

The jaundice affects between 45 per cent and 60 per cent of healthy babies, and is present in up to 80 per cent of premature infants, the report said.

The French researchers said they looked at 58 children age 8 and 9 with moles, 18 of whom had light treatments as newborns. Of the entire group 37 had had moles that were 2 millimeters (.078 inch) or larger.

''A comparison of both groups showed that the number of (moles) larger than 2 mm was significantly higher'' in the group exposed to light treatments, said the study from Bichat-Claude Bernard Hospital, Saint-Antoine Hospital and Assistance Publique-Hopitaux de Paris published in the Archives of Dermatology.

''While childhood development of (moles) is correlated with fair skin and solar light exposure, and having many (moles) is a recognized risk factor for persons with melanoma, we must be careful not to equate childhood (mole) development to neonatal phototherapy with an individual's risk of developing melanoma,'' the study concluded.

But children exposed to light therapy as newborns ''should undergo dermatologic preventive measures and surveillance for their development of melanoma,'' it added.