The study was published this week in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
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Senior researcher Dr. Abrar Qureshi, chair of dermatology at Brown University and a dermatologist at Rhode Island Hospital, in Providence informed that it is possible that certain compounds in citrus fruits could increase the risk of melanoma.
Skin cancers – invasive melanoma among them – are more alarming for people in Israel, as it has been increasing there according to a data from 2010. Both studies ran for nearly two decades.
The study involving 40,000 men and 60,000 women had reportedly been going on for more than 25 years, with researchers asking questions about diet, habits and other personal matters. In the study that continued for 24 to 26 years, 1,840 of the participants were diagnosed with melanoma.
The study researchers also noticed that the subjects majorly had two fruits: grapefruit and orange juice.
But the risk of skin cancer jumped to 36 percent in people who had reported eating citruses 1.5 times per day.
Even accounting for varying amounts of sun exposure and the geographic location of the study participants, the association between citrus fruits and skin cancer was still high, Qureshi said.
Generally, fruits and fresh fruit juices are recommended by health experts for long term health benefits. “The citrus can’t hurt you without the excessive sun exposure”, Qureshi said.
In the US, there are about 30 cases of cutaneous malignant melanoma for every 100,000 individuals, according to Marianne Berwick of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, who wrote an editorial accompanying the findings.
Nevertheless, the link doesn’t represent a cause-and-effect relationship, so more research needs to be done to confirm the findings.
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Researchers found that People who ate citrus fruits two to four times per week had a 10 percent increased risk of the skin cancer compared to those who ate citrus fruit less than twice a week.
