The American Cancer Society indicates that melanoma is diagnosed in about 69,000 Americans each year and causes about 8,650 deaths annually.

The skin cancer usually manifests as unusual moles or patches of skin. While it is often curable if caught early, once melanoma has spread beyond the skin and local lymph nodes, treatment is difficult and it may ultimately result in death.

Now, recent research indicates that there is an association between side effects of Viagra and melanoma, suggesting that users of the medication may be 84 percent more likely to develop the serious and potentially deadly skin cancer.

Study Links Viagra To Skin Cancer Risk

In April 2014, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study that found men using Viagra were significantly more likely to develop melanoma when compared to men not using the drug.

In the study, researchers reviewed data from more than 25,000 participants and found that when compared to men not using the drug, men with a history of Viagra use were twice as likely to develop melanoma, while men currently taking the drug were at an 84 percent increased risk.

Researchers suggest that Viagra’s active ingredient, sildenafil citrate, appears to lower levels of a cancer-fighting protein called PDE5A, which could potentially increase the invasiveness of melanoma skin cancer cells. They found no evidence of increases in the risks of other forms of skin cancer.

Viagra Melanoma Cancer Risks

Viagra (sildenafil citrate) is one of the best known brand-name medications, which was introduced by Pfizer in 1998 and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of erectile dysfunction.

Amid aggressive direct-to-consumer marketing that promotes Viagra as “the little blue pill,” Pfizer grew the medication into a blockbuster drug that generated more than $2 billion in annual sales in 2012.

However, it appears that Pfizer may have withheld critical information about Viagra side effects and the risk of melanoma. Providing consumers and the medical community with warnings that the drug may cause skin cancer likely would have greatly reduced the number of men who would choose to take the drug for erectile dysfunction.

Although Pfizer has a duty to adequately research and study the potential risks associated with Viagra, information about the link to melanoma was not discovered by the independent medical community for more than 15 years after the drug was introduced. The findings of the JAMA study have now raised questions about how the drug maker failed to detect and warn users about the potential risk of melanoma from Viagra.

Viagra Melanoma Lawsuits

Since the release of the findings and other consumer reports, hundreds of men who have taken the erectile dysfunction drug may file Viagra skin cancer lawsuits or join Viagra melanoma class action lawsuits against erectile dysfunction drug treatment manufacturers.