A new study published in the journal JAMA reveals that men who take Viagra and other erectile dysfunction (ED) drugs have an increased risk of skin cancer.
Scientists studied more than 4,000 men in Sweden, and the researchers found that men who were prescribed a single course of Viagra or a similar drug were one-third more likely to develop a malignant melanoma. Men who filled multiple prescriptions of the drugs had a 20 percent greater likelihood of developing the disease. Researchers from New York University said the revelation that these men have a one in 25 chance of developing cancer was significant, according to The Telegraph.
ED drugs such as Viagra and Cialis work by shutting off the enzyme PDE5, a chemical that lets an erection go away after sex by limiting blood flow. Scientists think a faulty gene (BRAF) that suppresses PDE5 causes malignant melanomas. This would suggest that PDE5 is important in preventing the spread of skin cancer. Scientists say that ED drugs could be mimicking the effect of the mutated BRAF gene, The Telegraph reported.
“The use of PDE5 inhibitors was associated with a modest but significant increased risk of malignant melanoma,” Dr. Stacy Loeb, of New York University, told The Telegraph.
Viagra was originally developed to treat high blood pressure and angina, but was found to be ineffective for these conditions. Doctors found the drug caused sustained erections by temporarily increasing blood flow to the penis, according to The Telegraph. Viagra was approved as a sex-enhancing drug in the United States in 1998, according to History.com.
Professor Chris Chapple, Secretary General of the European Association of Urology, Consultant Urological Surgeon and Honorary Professor at Sheffield Hallam University, told The Telegraph: “This paper reports a previously unreported potential association between the use of this type of drug – a PDE5 inhibitor for erectile dysfunction- and low stage melanoma.” Chapple also noted that the association was more noticeable in patients who had filled single prescriptions as compared to patients who had filled several prescriptions for the drug.
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from Parker Waichman http://www.yourlawyer.com/blog/new-study-reveals-a-link-between-viagra-and-malignant-melanomas/
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