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Poor Repair Of DNA Sun-Damage Raises Melanoma Risk

Reduced DNA repair capacity (DRC) is an independent risk factor for cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) and may increase susceptibility to sunlight-induced CMM in the general population.

This is the view of researchers in the United States following a hospital-based case control study involving 312 (non-Hispanic) white CMM patients and 324 cancer-free control subjects.

It is unclear how UV light exposure from sunlight affects the course of CMM, report Dr Q Wei and colleagues from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas. However, there is a high incidence of CMM in patients with xeroderma pigmentosum, a disease characterised by severe sensitivity to UV radiation and a defect in nucleotide excision repair.

This suggests DRC plays a role in sunlight-induced CMM in the general population, note these authors.

In this study, the 312 CMM patients, none of them with prior chemo- or radiation therapy, and the 324 controls were matched on frequency, age, sex and ethnicity. Investigators used medical records and questionnaires to obtain information on demographic variables, risk factors and tumour characteristics.

To measure DRC in study subjects' lymphocytes, they used the host-cell reactivation assay. All statistical tests were two sided.

There was a significant difference between case and control subjects, with case patients having a 19% lower mean DRC. Moreover, once investigators accounted for age, gender and other covariates, DRC that was at or below the median value in controls was linked with increased risk for CMM.

There was a dose-response relationship between decreased DRC and increased risk of CMM.

Patients with tumours on sun-exposed versus unexposed skin also had significantly lower DRC.
J Natl Cancer Inst 2003 Feb 19;95:4:308-15. "Repair of UV Light-Induced DNA Damage and Risk of Cutaneous Malignant Melanoma."

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