Article:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=5575463&page=1
Will Your Moisturizer Give You Cancer?
Mouse Study Raises Alarm Over Skin Lotions; Some Experts Remain
Skeptical
By AUDREY GRAYSON
ABC News Medical Unit
Aug. 14, 2008
A new study linking moisturizers to skin cancer in mice may have some
worried that chemicals lurking in their bottles of skin lotion could
mean danger down the road.
Could using moisturizing creams increase your risk of skin cancer? But
while some dermatology experts believe this study may open the door to
further research, most say that the study is, at best, scare science
-- and at worst, just plain bad science.
Researchers from Rutgers University in Piscataway, N.J., tested skin
moisturizing creams on mice to determine whether their use is linked
to cancer. To do this, they exposed hairless mice to ultraviolet
radiation to mimic sun exposure, and afterward treated the mice with
one of four popular moisturizers -- Dermabase, Dermavan, Eucerin or
Vanicream.
They found that the mice treated with moisturizers after the exposure
to ultraviolet light grew more skin tumors -- and that these tumors
were larger than those on untreated mice.
Lead investigator Allan Conney, a professor of cancer and leukemia
research at Rutgers, said the study should cause concern over the
safety of many moisturizers.
|
