Time to go to get your hat

doi:10.1136/bmj.a1130

Published 6 August 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a1130
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a1130

Letters

Sun and melanoma

Time to go to get your hat

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Cooper (doi 10.1136/bmj.a1126) finds Menzies’s observationsmore compelling than Shuster’s, as he expects most dermatologistsin the world would.¹ ² He is also concerned about Shuster’sarticle translating into an epidemic of non-melanoma skin cancer.Finally, he professes to be unaware of evidence that ultravioletlight may protect against some forms of cancer.

We would therefore direct him to our recent lesson of the weekand its accompanying editorial.³ ⁴ The evidence linking majorcancers—including breast, prostate, pancreas, and colon—toUVB light under-exposure is actually rather stronger thanis the evidence linking melanoma (quantitatively responsiblefor an order of magnitude fewer deaths) to UVB over-exposure.³⁴

This debate highlights how the more we as specialty doctorsdiverge from the common stem of general internal medicine thatnurtured us, the greater the risk of our missing the biggerpicture when an issue transcends specialty boundaries.

Incompletely justified high profile media campaigns about sunlight. . . [Full text of this article]

Richard Quinton, consultant and senior lecturer in endocrinology¹, Simon H S Pearce, consultant and professor¹, John L Sievenpiper, visiting elective medical student¹

¹ Endocrine Unit, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4LP

richard.quinton@ncl.ac.uk

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us Add to Digg

Digg

StumbleUpon Add to Technorati

Technorati What's this?

Relevant Articles

Consequences of saying sun is not major cause of melanoma: Ashley J Cooper
BMJ 2008 337: a1126. [Extract] [Full Text]

Use your head and put a hat on it: Marc D Moncrieff and Jennifer Garioch
BMJ 2008 337: a1131. [Extract] [Full Text]

Is sun exposure a major cause of melanoma? Yes: Scott W Menzies
BMJ 2008 337: a763. [Extract] [Full Text]

Is sun exposure a major cause of melanoma? No: Sam Shuster
BMJ 2008 337: a764. [Extract] [Full Text]

Deficiency of sunlight and vitamin D: Michael F Holick
BMJ 2008 336: 1318-1319. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Unrecognised severe vitamin D deficiency: John L Sievenpiper, Elizabeth A McIntyre, Mark Verrill, Richard Quinton, and Simon H S Pearce
BMJ 2008 336: 1371-1374. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]