Obesity and the most deadly skin cancer malignant melanoma of course has a different cause. But recently a group of a team of researchers from the UK found that they have a genetic link.
And all this time the experts thought that only malignant melanoma are caused by sun or sunbed use or beds used for tanning regularly. But in fact a joint team of researchers from Cancer Research UK and the University of Leeds found that a gene called FTO also play an important role related to this disease.
Researchers claim that most genes associated with overweight condition it was also known to increase the risk of malignant melanoma. This means that people who are obese are also at high risk of skin cancer is the most deadly.
The conclusion came after the researchers looked at DNA 13 000 73 000 patients in whom skin cancer. From there, seen that participants who have a particular FTO gene variation is much more likely to develop malignant melanoma than other participants.
"This is the first time it was found that the main cause of obesity gene turned out to be something to do with a variety of diseases, including melanoma. This raises the question whether other studies in the future will reveal that these genes have different roles in other diseases," said lead researcher Dr. Mark Iles as reported by the Daily Mail, Tuesday (03/05/2013).
Responding to the findings, Dr. Julie Sharp of Cancer Research UK said: "These findings are very interesting and if it has been confirmed by subsequent studies could be the study provides a better understanding of the molecular causes of skin cancer as well as new targets for the development of melanoma drugs, especially those that provide a real difference to the patient. "