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Review
. 1997 Jan 7;94(1):11-4.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.94.1.11.

Sunlight and skin cancer: another link revealed

K H Kraemer  1
Affiliations
Review

Sunlight and skin cancer: another link revealed

K H Kraemer. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .
No abstract available

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Age of onset of skin cancers in normal and xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) skin cancer patients. The cumulative percentage of patients with BCCs or SCCs of the skin is plotted versus the age at diagnosis. The curve for the normal population is based on 29,757 skin cancers surveyed by the National Cancer Institute (1). The curve for the xeroderma pigmentosum patients is based on 63 skin cancers reported to the Xeroderma Pigmentosum Registry (unpublished data).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Effect of sun exposure on the tumor suppressor gene, p53, and on other cellular processes involved in induction of nonmelanoma skin cancer. Sun exposure causes mutations of the tumor suppressor gene, p53 (p531, p532, p533, p534, … ), which results in initiated cells, some of which are resistant to apoptosis. Additional sun exposure acts as a promotor permitting these apoptotic-resistant cells to continue to proliferate following UV exposures that inhibit neighboring cells. In a small fraction of cells allelic loss or acquisition of a second p53 mutation on the other allele is associated with a precancerous state, such as an actinic keratosis (AK). A small fraction of these cells eventually become cancerous. This entire process is modified by additional cellular processes such as DNA repair and by processes that are altered by sun exposure including eicosanoid and proteinase production, cytokine activation and immune suppression, and sunlight-induced mutations of other tumor suppressor genes including patched (PTCH) for BCCs and possibly the ESS1 gene [for the multiple self-healing squamous cell epithelioma disorder described by Ferguson-Smith (52, 53)] for SCCs. Additional details are provided in the text.
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Comment on

References

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