A recent study naming Viagra as one of the possible causes of melanoma has raised serious concerns through the medical community and consumers. However, the details of the study reveal a more nuanced and complicated issue than first glance.

What is Melanoma?

Melanoma is a type of skin cancer. Cancer is a situation when cells in the human body malfunction and “go rogue,” reproducing uncontrollably. As cancer cells reproduce, they spread throughout the body. Cancer cells interfere with healthy cells by out-competing with them for resources in the body or physically damaging them. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of ways that a cell can “go bad” and become cancer. Though the specifics vary, this process generally falls into one of two categories. Either the genes that regulate cell growth are damaged, promoting uncontrolled cell growth, or the immune system and other processes that suppress and destroy cancer falter. In the case of melanoma, melanoma skin cancer cells start their lives as cells in the skin called melanocytes, cells that produce a dark pigment called melanin. This often gives melanoma a dark color.

Study Looks At Viagra Melanoma Link

A recent 2014 Viagra melanoma research study found that Viagra users appeared to develop melanoma cancer more often than those who did not take the drug. Researchers performed a prospective cohort study, a type of study where researchers follow several groups of patients with different factors and see if they have different outcomes. In this case, It was observed that patients taking Viagra had an 84 percent increase in their risk of developing melanoma. This type of study is not sufficient to “prove” that Viagra can cause melanoma to the standards required by clinical medical science, but several factors strengthen the evidence of the link.

First, scientist also found that patients with erectile dysfunction who didn’t take Viagra had no similar increase in their risk of developing melanoma. This makes it unlikely that ED patients have a higher risk of melanoma and this population just happens to take a lot of Viagra.

Additionally, researchers did not observe a similar link between Viagra and other skin cancers. This specificity, combined with the fact that in vitro testing suggests that the active ingredient in Viagra may interfere with cancer-suppressing processes in the body that are specific to melanoma, lends further credence to the link.

For the average Viagra patient, this study may not have much impact. The risk of melanoma is still relatively low. The lifetime risk of developing melanoma is .5 to 4 percent depending on ethnicity (lighter skin is a major risk factor for melanoma). Even if Viagra doubles this risk, it could mean as few as 1 extra person in 1,000 people developing melanoma skin cancer over the course of their lifetime. However, the legal system could look at this very differently and for that one extra person with melanoma, their relative risk of developing melanoma is little consolation.