A new study indicates that having the gene for red hair, pale skin and freckles corresponds with a larger number of genetic mutations that can lead to skin cancer.
In fact, the findings indicate, those with the redhead variant of the MC1R gene had 42 percent more mutations than those without it, which equates to 21 extra years of sun exposure.
Redheads with freckles and pale skin have two copies of the gene, but non-redheads with just one copy could be at risk, according to the findings.
The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and University of Leeds’ research, which examined public data sets of more than 400 people’s tumor DNA sequences, was published today in Nature Communications.
What’s striking is that it only takes a single copy of a redhead gene, MC1R, to cause an uptick in melanoma skin cancer mutations. Redheads account for 1 to 2 percent of the world’s population, and melanoma is the deadliest type of skin cancer.
“It has been known for a while that a person with red hair has an increased likelihood of developing skin cancer, but this is the first time that the gene has been proven to be associated with skin cancers with more mutations,” Dr. David Adams, joint lead researcher at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, said in an article on the organization’s website.
In the U.S., skin cancer is the most common cancer, with 71,943 people diagnosed with skin melanomas in 2013, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency said there were 9,394 skin melanoma deaths that same year.
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Redhead Gene Linked to Higher Skin Cancer Mutation Risk originally appeared on usnews.com
