Research Uncovers Link Between Balding & Skin Cancer

News Desk

Sydney: A new research study suggests that pigmentation and increased sun exposure may also contribute to the increased risk of hair loss in men.

A research team led by Australia’s QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute has shed new light on why people with hair loss are more susceptible to skin cancers.

According to the study published in the Nature Communications journal, researchers tagged sun exposure on the scalp instead of androgens as the main driver after conducting male-only meta-analyses of 12,232 cutaneous melanoma cases and 17,512 keratinocyte cancers.

The QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute Lead Author of study Jue-Sheng Ong stated that we find an overlap between genes that cause hair loss and genes that affect skin colour or pigmentation. Skin colour is a known risk factor for skin cancer, he added.

We found no evidence that testosterone levels play any meaningful role in the relationship between balding and skin cancer, Ong noted.

However, the majority of this relationship between balding and skin cancer is still explained by increased sun exposure, further said Lead Author. Xinhua/APP