A recent study has linked the use of Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra to a greater increased risk of developing melanoma skin cancer.

These new findings, reported by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), were based on a study of more than 25,000 American men conducted over a period of 10 years by researchers from Harvard, Brown and other leading U.S. universities and hospitals.

The JAMA study found that men who had used the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra – even just once – were 84 percent more likely to develop melanoma skin cancers than those who did not use an ED drug. The researchers factored in and ruled out other possible reasons that might account for the significantly higher incidence of melanoma skin cancer including age, tobacco use, and physical activity. Men who had erectile dysfunction but did not use Viagra did not show an increased risk for melanoma.

Viagra and Skin Cancer

Viagra is part of a class of drugs known as phosphodiesterase-5 (PDG5A) inhibitors. There are many other drugs in this class, including Cialis and Levitra. According to the study, treatment with Viagra and the other drugs, Cialis and Levitra, can promote melanoma cell invasion.

Physicians involved in the JAMA study explained that one of the key ingredients in Viagra, sildenafil, may trigger melanoma development but they have not yet established a direct cause. Viagra may increase the risks of melanoma because it affects the same genetic pathway that allows the skin cancer to become more invasive. That would make Viagra melanoma cancers even more dangerous.

What About Other ED Medications?

Although Viagra, manufactured by Pfizer, is the only ED medicine that contains the drug sildenafil, which was the main subject of the JAMA study, other ED medications such as Cialis and Levitra contain drugs that operate in a similar way, and just as the sildenafil in Viagra, are also PDG5A inhibitors.

Skin Cancer Symptoms

Melanoma is a deadly skin cancer. Like most cancers, early detection and treatment provide the best survival rates. According to Cancer Treatment Centers of America, some signs of melanoma are:

• New spots/freckles/moles on the skin
• A change in size, shape or color of an existing mole
• Sores that do not heal
• Pigment, redness or swelling that spreads outside the border of a spot to the surrounding skin
• Itchiness, tenderness or pain
• Changes in texture or scales, oozing or bleeding from an existing mole

Viagra Melanoma Lawsuits

In light of the recent JAMA study and other consumer reports linking Viagra and other ED drugs to skin cancer, hundreds of men who have taken the erectile dysfunction drugs Viagra, Cialis, or Levitra may file melanoma skin cancer lawsuits or join skin cancer class action lawsuits against erectile dysfunction drug treatment manufacturers.