There is good news for fans of coffee. Based on a study in the United States, shows signs of coffee may reduce the risk of skin cancer by helping to kill the damaged cells that potentially can turn into tumors.
The findings, published on Monday, shows that drinking caffeine naturally, or even use a coffee in the skin, can be useful in counteracting the non-melanoma cancer, the diagnosis of skin cancer most often.
By using mice that are genetically influenced to suppress the production of the enzyme protein, ATR, in his body, the researchers proved that rats were able to fend off cancer and even
when exposed to ultraviolet light.
Previous research has suggested that drinking about one cup of caffeinated coffee per day had the effect of pressing the ATR and trigger the death of cells damaged by UV rays.
The rat eventually had cancer, but it happened after three weeks, compared with normal mice, according to research published in the Report of the National Academy of Sciences.
After 19 weeks exposure to ultraviolet light, the engineered mice that showed 69 percent fewer tumors and four times less invasive tumors compared to normal group.
However, the protective effect only as long as it is, after more than 34 weeks exposure to ultraviolet light, all mice had tumors.
"Finally, if you memamar them with ultraviolet light long enough, all the mice will develop cancer, so it does not provide 100 percent protection forever," said Allan Conney, one of the authors, told AFP.
"Really, with almost all kinds of carcinogens, in the end all the animals will suffer from tumors," said Conney, who is director of the Laboratory for Cancer Research Susan Lehman Cullman at Rutgers University, New Jersey.
Conney and his team were able to confirm their hypothesis that caffeine, when consumed or applied to the skin - works by inhibiting the ATR. Now they say that more research is needed to see how the same theory may also work in humans.
"We want to see if caffeine has an effect in humans when administered regularly," he said.
"Caffeine may be a weapon in the prevention of being able to inhibit the ATR and also acts as a sunscreen and directly absorbs UV rays that damage."
Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States, with more than one million new cases each year, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Type of non-skin cancer melanoma, including the type of basal cell and squamous cell, is a type of skin cancer most often diagnosed and often treatable if detected at an early stage.
Previous studies have shown coffee drinkers tend to have lower risk of breast cancer, uterine, prostate and colon, but no beneficial effects seen in people who drank decaffeinated coffee.