In this perspective, Gerd P. Pfeifer and Ahmad Besaratinia discuss the influence of wavelength on the nature of the DNA damage and the mutagenic properties of solar UV radiation. It forms part of an upcoming themed issue on the biology of UVA.
Skin Cancer is currently the most common tumour diagnosed in many countries and the numbers of cases have increased dramatically over the last few decades. Skin cancers are one of the few examples of human cancer where the causative agent is known with high certainty as the epidemiological evidences clearly indicates that solar UV radiation is associated with skin cancer. This means it can act as a useful system to dissect various steps of carcinogenesis, allowing initial events at the DNA level and specific genes that are frequently mutated to be identified.
Read the full article for free until 2nd September.
UV wavelength-dependent DNA damage and human non-melanoma and melanoma skin cancer
Gerd P. Pfeifer and Ahmad Besaratinia
Photochem. Photobiol. Sci., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1PP05144J
