New insight into skin-tanning process suggests novel way of preventing skin cancer

"These studies suggest that a drug-induced 'rescue' of the tanning mechanism may correspondingly rescue at least some aspect of skin cancer protection," Fisher observes. "Such sunless tanning may also dissuade sun-seeking behaviors, which undoubtedly contribute significantly to high skin cancer incidence."

The lead author of the study is John D'Orazio, MD, PhD, formerly a pediatric oncology fellow in Fisher's lab at Dana-Farber and Children's and now at the University of Kentucky. The co-authors include Tetsuji Nobuhisa, MD, PhD, Rutao Cui, MD, PhD, Michelle Arya, MS, Vivien Igras, and Scott Granter, MD, of Dana-Farber; Emi Nishimura, MD, PhD, of Kanazawa University, Japan; Malinda Spry of the University of Kentucky; Kazumasa Wakamatsu, PhD, and Shosuke Ito, PhD, of Fujita Health University in Japan; and Takahiro Kunisada, PhD, of Gifu University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan.

The study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, and Technology. Fisher is the Jan and Charles Nirenberg Fellow in Pediatric Oncology at Dana-Farber.

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is a principal teaching affiliate of the Harvard Medical School and is among the leading cancer research and care centers in the United States. It is a founding member of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC), designated a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute.