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THURSDAY, Aug. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Common moisturizing creams helped skin cancers spread and tumors grow in mice exposed to UV radiation, researchers at Rutgers University reported Thursday.
"These creams we tested have tumorigenic [tumor-causing capability] activities," said lead researcher Allan H. Conney, from the university's Susan Lehman Cullman Laboratory for Cancer Research.
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But, he added, "I need to emphasize that what we have done is only in mice. We don't know what the implications are for humans. But it does raise a red flag that this is something that should be considered."
The report is published in the Aug. 14 issue of the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.
For the study, Conney's team exposed hairless mice to an extended period of UV radiation, which induced non-melanoma skin cancer. After stopping UV treatment, they applied four different common brands of skin moisturizers to the animals' skin five days a week for 17 weeks.
The researchers found that mice treated with skin moisturizers showed an increased rate of tumor formation. In addition, there were more tumors on the animals treated with moisturizers than on the mice that were only given UV radiation.
The moisturizers used were Dermabase, made by Patrick Laboratories in Minneapolis; Dermovan, made by Galderma Laboratory Inc. of Fort Worth, Texas; Eucerin Original Moisturizing Cream, made by Beiersdorf of Hamburg Germany; and Vanicream, made by Pharmaceutical Specialties Inc., in Rochester, Minn.
Conney's group identified several ingredients in the moisturizers that appear to enhance tumor growth.
"We took out a couple of ingredients and made a cream that turned out to be non-tumorigenic," Conney said. The resulting lotion did not increase cancer growth in mice exposed to UV radiation, the researchers found.
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