Moisturizers linked to skin cancer, study indicates
BOSTON — Moisturizing lotions such as Beiersdorf AG’s Eucerin and Paddock Laboratories’ Dermabase may raise the risk of skin cancer, according to researchers who tested the products on mice.
Skin tumors grew faster and in greater numbers in mice exposed to ultraviolet light and rubbed with the creams than in nonmoisturized animals, a study released Thursday by the Journal of Investigative Dermatology found. Healthpoint’s Dermovan and Pharmaceutical Specialties’ Vanicream showed similar effects.
Cellular damage caused by ultraviolet light from the sun is linked to about 1 million cases of skin cancer in the U.S. annually, said the study’s authors, led by Yao Ping-Lu, a cancer researcher at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
“It waves a red flag” said Allan Conney in a telephone interview, director of the laboratory for cancer research at the Rutgers School of Pharmacy, who helped write the study. “It tells us that we should take a more careful look at this issue.”
Large studies comparing skin-cancer rates among sun-exposed people who use skin cream with rates among those who don’t use it would help establish the link, he said.
In the study, hairless mice were exposed to ultraviolet light twice a week, for 20 weeks, which increased their rate of developing tumors. They were rubbed with skin creams once a day, five days a week, for 17 weeks. In some cases, moisturized mice had twice as many tumors.
Mineral oil, a familiar ingredient in skin creams, has been linked to tumor formation, and sodium lauryl sulfate, another common ingredient, has been tied to irritation in the past.
The researchers also tested a lotion, prepared for them by Johnson & Johnson, that didn’t contain those two ingredients. The cream wasn’t linked to an increase in tumor risk or growth, the authors said.
Vanicream has been used safely for 30 years, said Brian Leary, vice president of marketing for Pharmaceutical Specialties, based in Rochester, Minn.
Healthpoint stopped making Dermovan in 2006, said Mark Mitchell, vice president of regulatory compliance for the company’s parent, DFB Pharmaceuticals Inc., based in San Antonio, Texas. Sales had slowed for the product, which pharmacists used to make medicinal lotions, he said.
He also questioned the study’s validity. “I think there’s a lot of difference between irradiated mice and human cancer,” he said.
Calls to Beiersdorf, based in Hamburg, Germany, and Paddock, based in Minneapolis, weren’t immediately returned.
