London - Eczema, as any sufferer will attest, can be a real pain. But there may be a silver lining, it seems, as the condition may lower the risk of developing skin cancer.
People with eczema have an overactive immune system which means their skin easily becomes dry and prone to infection. But this so-called defective skin barrier may also help them shed potentially cancerous cells from the skin and so protect against one of the most common types of skin cancer, squamous cell cancer (SCC).
A study by King’s College London, published online in eLife journal, is the first to show that the skin defects caused by eczema could protect against skin cancer.
Scientists used genetically engineered mice lacking three skin barrier proteins – known as ‘knock-out’ mice – to replicate skin defects found in eczema sufferers.
The researchers compared the effects of two cancer-causing chemicals in normal mice and the knock-out mice. The number of SCC tumours was six times lower in each knock-out mouse than a normal mouse.
Professor Fiona Watt of King’s College said: “I hope our study provides some small consolation to eczema sufferers – that this uncomfortable skin condition may actually be beneficial in some circumstances.”
In Britain, one in five children and one in 12 adults suffer from eczema. - Daily Mail