Need an incentive to reduce your carbon footprint? Consider the implications of this study of some 900 St. Louis residents that discovered an association between long periods of driving and an increased risk of skin cancer.

Based on a review of medical data on all patients diagnosed with non-midline skin cancer at St. Louis University in 2004, some 53 percent had skin cancer on the left sides of their bodies or faces. What's more, out of the 557 men whose records were reviewed for the study, 300 had skin cancer on their left sides. Interestingly, women under age 51 were predisposed to skin cancers on the left side too, a number, researchers say, that's emblematic of the way our society has changed over the past quarter-century to two-car families and equal-opportunity driving.

One more finding worth noting: Malignant melanoma in situ, also called stage 0 melanoma, was found 75 percent of the time on the left side of the body.

Hopefully, science and the FDA will agree on safer sunscreen formulations very soon. Perhaps, a soybean oil-based alternative is in the mix…

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Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology March 12, 2010

DenverPost.com May 17, 2010

LiveScience May 7, 2010

Last month in this space, we told you about the fight many childhood cancer survivors may face with heart disease as they mature into adulthood. Evidently, the reverse may be true as well, specifically for patients undergoing heart transplants who have a greater risk of skin cancer.

Although it's no secret organ transplant recipients cope with a greater risk of skin cancers, Mayo Clinic researchers learned heart transplant patients are at least twice as likely to tackle skin cancer issues compared to those who receive new kidneys.

Based on health reviews of 312 heart transplant patients, nearly half developed skin cancer over the course of the 19-year study. Additionally, the incidence of squamous-cell carcinoma after the diagnosis of the first basal-cell carcinoma (the most common form of nonmelanoma skin cancer and the most easily treated one) was nearly 100 percent, within seven years. The primary culprits for this growing risk: The older age of the patient and the immunosuppressant drugs heart transplant patients take to prevent their bodies from rejecting their new organs.

Surprisingly, however, the mortality rate associated with skin cancer among transplant patients was very, very low: Only one transplant patient died from skin cancer.

Archives of Dermatology, Vol. 145, No. 12, pp. 1391-1396, December 2009

heartwire December 29, 2009

ScienceDaily December 24, 2009