Study finds caffeine could protect against skin cancer

Elizabeth Smythe

2011-08-16 3:04 PM

American researchers are on the verge of making a coffee-flavoured sunscreen breakthrough, reports The Telegraph.

It may not be long before bean to cup coffee machines are being used to dispense health products, according to academics writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, who have found that caffeine can help protect against UV damage.

Caffeine is known to interfere with an enzyme called ATR which detects damaged DNA and attempts to ‘rescue’ the cells, but these often turn cancerous. 

Experiments on genetically-modified mice, where ATR was suppressed, showed that when exposed to UV light, not only did tumours take longer to develop, but that there were fewer of them. After 19 weeks, there were 69 per cent less tumours in the mice who had been modified compared with those who had not.

The report said: “Combined with the extensive epidemiologic data linking caffeine intake with decreased skin cancer development, these findings suggest the possibility that topical caffeine application could be useful in preventing UV-induced skin cancers.”

Previous reports had suggested that drinking coffee could help protect against skins cancers in the same way, but further research is necessary. While considered “interesting progress”, experts are still a little dubious about the results.

Commenting on the experiment, Professor Dot Bennett from the University of London told BBC News: “The authors suggest adding caffeine or related molecules to sunscreens.

“First, one might want to check there is no adverse effect of caffeine on the incidence of other cancers, especially melanoma, pigmented skin cancer, which kills over four times as many people as squamous cell carcinoma.

“But caffeine lotion might promote tanning a little, since this family of molecules stimulates pigment cells to make more pigment.”