tosensitizing Medication Use and Risk of Skin Cancer

ownload kground: Many commonly used medications, including both medications for long-term (daily) use and term use (treatment courses of finite duration), have photosensitizing properties. Whether use of these ations affects skin cancer risk, however, is unclear. thods: Using a cohort of all Danish residents ≥15 years old in 1995 to 2006 (n = 4,761,749) and inforfrom Danish national registers, we examined associations between use of photosensitizing medicand risk of basal cell carcinoma, cutaneous malignant melanoma, Merkel cell carcinoma, and squamous rcinoma. ults: Users of only 2 of 19 medications for long-term use (methyldopa and furosemide) had both a increased risk of skin cancer (compared with nonusers) and an increase in risk with increasing duration ; these effects were limited to basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, respectively. In conof 10 medications for short-term use were associated with both a ≥20% increased risk of skin cancer increase in risk with increasing use for at least one of the four cancers. clusion: We found little evidence of an increased risk of skin cancer among users of photosensitizing ations for long-term daily use, but could not rule out the possibility that users of some photosensitizing ations for short-term use may have an increased risk of skin cancer. act: Previous studies have been limited to specific medication types (e.g., antidiuretics). Our study exd the effect of a wide range of photosensitizing medications on skin cancer risk and suggests that future amine work should focus on photosensitizing medications for short-term use. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 19(11); 2942–9. ©2010 AACR.