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Exposure to ultraviolet radiation may lower the risk of developing pancreatic cancer, according to a new study from Australia.
Researchers looked at 1,400 people and found that those born in areas with the highest levels of ultraviolet (UV) radiation were 24 percent less likely to have pancreatic cancer, compared with those born in areas with the lowest UV levels. The link held after researchers accounted for factors that could affect participants' pancreatic cancer risk, such as age, smoking and diabetes.
But exposure to UV radiation has long been linked with an increased risk of skin cancer, including the deadliest type, melanoma.
"We need to avoid the sun during the daytime periods when UV levels are the highest, and protect parts of the body that regularly get the highest exposure," said study leader Rachel Neale, a researcher at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Queensland. "We don't have the science yet," to recommend a level of ultraviolet exposure that might optimize the balance between the increased risk of skin cancer with the lowered risk of pancreatic cancer, she said.
Researchers aren't sure exactly how the link may work, but Neale noted that there also is evidence that UV exposure may lower the risk of colorectal and other internal cancers.
Neale is presenting the findings June 19 at a pancreatic cancer research meeting in Lake Tahoe, Nev.
Risks and benefits
Pancreatic cancer is a deadly disease — an estimated 44,000 people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with the condition in 2012, and 37,000 are expected to die of the disease this year.
Neale and her colleagues interviewed 704 people with pancreatic cancer and 713 people without the disease. The researchers asked where the participants were born, where they lived since their birth, their skin type and whether they easily developed sunburns, their intake of vitamin D over the course of their lives, and whether they'd been diagnosed or treated for skin cancer or skin lesions.
In this study, participants' birthplaces were matched to NASA data of UV radiation levels, which is one way that researchers assess people's UV exposure. However, Neale said, future analyses of the data — including a look at people's places of residence over the course of their lives — will give a more complete picture of the link between UV exposure and pancreatic cancer risk.
"We found that in all of our measures, sun exposure was predictive of pancreatic cancer," Neale said.
The data showed that people who said they burn readily after sun exposure were half as likely to have pancreatic cancer as those who don't burn at all.
Additionally, people who'd been treated for skin cancer or other sun-related skin lesions had a 40 percent lower risk of pancreatic cancer than those who had not had skin lesions treated.
The strongest association with a reduced pancreatic cancer risk was seen in people who reported that their skin lesions were treated by being burnt off the skin, Neale said. The lesions that are typically treated this way are those that most strongly linked with sun exposure, such as solid keratoses and actinic keratoses.
Why the link?
Researchers aren't sure why there may be a link between UV exposure and a lowered risk of pancreatic cancer, Neale said.
Some studies have linked lower rates of cancer in general with higher vitamin D levels, and vitamin D is produced by sun-exposed skin.
However, studies of pancreatic cancer looking at vitamin D levels and cancer risk are mixed, Neale said, and one study published this year in the International Journal of Cancer found that people with either very low or very high levels of vitamin D had a higher risk of pancreatic cancer.
Clinical trials are needed to better understand the link, she said.
There are also other possible mechanisms that could explain the link, Neale said. While UV radiation generally has a suppressive effect on the immune system, "the immune system is complicated, and it's possible the link has something to do with immune function," she said. Genetics partly governs people's reactions to sunlight, and may also play a role, she said.
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Lesson: Take your daily 5000 IU softgel of D3 - not more, not less.
That's funny since both my grandparents, mother and uncle all diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and all lived in Florida. Good one.
I hope you have been tested. There is a heredity factor to pancreatic cancer-I was in a study several years ago due to just that.
I don't believe this study for a minute!!! My Mother was a "sun worshiper" in fact she had quite a suntan when she died. It was not jaundice. She died of pancreatic cancer. She lasted 6 months from diagnosis.
So sell this survey to another believer-not me!
Funny since my grandparents, mother and uncle all diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, all lived in Florida.
where has our common sense gone? human beings are designed to be exposed to the sun, we are not ground dwelling moles. the early and later parts of the day are good and mid day is when you instinctively seek shelter- i know, i was raised in the caribbean. you want to live a long healthy life? mimic pre industrial revolution, or even better, pre agricultural behavior as best you can. get up with the sun and go to bed when it sets- no alarm clocks. use diluted vinegar to wash your skin and hair with- soaps and shampoos etc., are loaded with toxins, plus your body oil serve a purpose. eat meats, veggies and fruit. drink water. wear completely flat shoes when you must wear shoes. walk. walk a lot. outside. not on a treadmill. it's not rocket science- it's just human evolution. duh!
Chance of pancreatic cancer goes down, chance of malignant melanoma goes up. Take your pick.
Hehehe....they keep throwing this stuff out there. Everything gives you cancer....get over it!
If and when the sceintific establisment goes back to actual research from beginning to end, instead of cherry picking for a patent or product to sell, will we finally understand all of these spikes in the data. It has been over thirty years since we stopped doing proper research and this is what we get. Find out the why and get back to me!
Really,,, Please I really don't think that, What happen to real research? My dad die 3 months after finding out. He was in the sun all the time... I wish they would do some real research once in a while... I wonder how much Gov. grant money they got for that study.
The data showed that people who said they burn readily after sun exposure were half as likely to have pancreatic cancer as those who don't burn at all.
Wouldn't people be more likely to burn DURING sun exposure, rather than AFTER it? And this supposed fact seems to suggest it might be people who are more sensitive to sunlight who have reduced risk than those who happen to live in sunnier areas.
These so-called scientists are always coming up with something with very vague statistics to somehow match something they have dreamed up. I am more inclined to believe the STORY was the most important result in their minds. It is like saying you are more likely to die in Florida from cancer, so stay away from Florida!! In reality, it is only because the state is inhabited with a lot of elderly folks that makes a death statistic in Florida the way it is. A person can always manipulate any statistic they want to make it fit any conclusion they want. Life causes cancer! Life causes death!
All that time and money would have been better spent on developing an early detection test for pancreatic cancer since, like most cancers, early detection is the key to survival. Problem with this cancer is that due to the location of the organ deep inside the abdomen, you don't know you have it until it spreads and causes problems with other organs.
So which would you rather die from, pancreatic cancer or melanoma? Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
The fact is we're going to die. Stop running from it. Smoke, drink and die early and quick like they did in the 60s instead of lingering on and watching yourself wither. Do as I say not as I do. ;)