Using sunscreen products with a sun protection factor (SPF) of 30 can help provide people with better protection against the harmful effects of ultraviolet (UV) light on the skin, a new study says.
Dr. Christin Burd, a molecular genetics from the Ohio State University, led a team of fellow scientists in conducting an experiment to find out how effective sunscreen lotions and gels are at preventing the development of skin cancer.
While sunscreens are known to protect the skin from getting burned by UV light, Burd said that it is difficult to determine just how capable these products are at preventing the formation of melanoma because they are primarily developed for cosmetics purposes. They are also mostly used on synthetic skin models and human volunteers during tests.
In a study being presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in New Orleans this week, Burd and her colleagues described how they were able to produce genetically-engineered mice that can be used to test the efficacy of sunscreen products at preventing sunburns and melanoma.
The development of the mice model was first featured in the AACR journal Cancer Discovery, where the researchers indicated that the genetically-altered mice contracted melanoma after being exposed to a chemical agent known as 4-hydroxytamoxifen (4OHT) for close to 26 weeks.
Following their initial findings, Burd and her team proceeded to expose the mice to a single dose of ultraviolet light a day after being given 4OHT. They found that the animals developed melanoma at a much faster rate and more tumors compared to those that weren't exposed to UV light.
Burd said that the survival rate of the mice dropped by as much as 80 percent and cutting it down to just five weeks.
However, when the mice were given SPF30 sunscreens that contained various UV light-blocking agents, the occurrence of melanoma and the development of tumors were reduced significantly.
The researchers noted that not all of the sunscreens offered the same degree of protection despite being labeled as SPF30.
Some products were more effective at protecting the skin from UV light than others, which makes it difficult for the researchers to differentiate the melanoma-preventing capabilities of each of the sunscreens for the time being.
