So far, majority of people are living with the misconception that only sunshine is responsible for the killing form of skin cancer. But, just recently studies have stated that there is something else that can cause skin cancer. A report has stated that the number of moles on our skin is responsible to a great extent in the risk of getting melanoma - a serious type of skin cancer. The report has cleared the misconception that not only sunshine is the sole reason that can cause one skin cancer and people are unnecessarily worrying about that. As per the studies, sunshine plays a very nominal role in causing the risk of melanoma.

Melanoma is the most critical type of skin cancer that is capable of spreading to other parts of the body. A possible treatment for melanoma is by removing the mole at a very early stage. The cancer can also start on a normal looking skin and it can even occur on a very fair skin where there is not even a single mole visible. With regards to deaths caused by melanoma, the occurrence of melanoma is about 10% of all skin cancer cases, but mostly skin cancer deaths are caused by melanoma only. In a sense, it is a very dangerous disease.

According to a study, every year around 1500 people die in England because of this killing cancer. An international team of researchers have discovered two genes that determine the number of moles someone will have and the possibility of getting skin cancer. According to professor of genetic epidemiology, Tim Spector of King’s College London, moles play a major role in increasing the risk of melanoma rather than the sunshine. Above all, the two genes discovered by the researchers control the number of moles and raise the possibility of getting melanoma. The researchers strong believe that health warning for people with more than 100 moles would be very useful.

Cancer Research UK’s director of health information, Sara Hiom, said that the research does not contradict with other scientific evidence that shows most of the skin cancers are caused due to long exposure to ultraviolet rays. She said that people with more moles are at higher risk of melanoma, therefore they should take extra care while exposing in the sun. She also pointed out that melanoma rates in UK have increased quadrupled in the past 30 years – parallel to the increased popularity of “sun holiday” together with the availability of artificial ultraviolet.

Over the past 30 years, the melanoma incidences have increased rapidly in the European countries. According to the estimation made by World health Organization, around 132000 cases of melanoma take place every year. According to the researchers, sunlight which is the most vital source of vitamin D can play a very important role in our health, shortage of sunlight may increase the death rate from other cancers, premature ageing, depression as well as osteoporosis. They added that official health warnings about avoiding the sun have been overstated and scaring people unnecessarily.