RELATIONSHIPS OF SUNLIGHT, COMPLEXION AND HEREDITY TO SKIN CARCINOGENESIS

Abstract

UNNA ([1894] cited by Blum¹) is generally credited with being the first to point out that prolonged exposure to sunlight might give rise to malignant tumors of the skin. Hyde (1906),² writing "On the Influence of Light in the Production of Cancer of the Skin," brought up the question of "whether actinic rays of light unfavorably influence not all but certain sensitive skin at certain ages of the body, in the direction of the epitheliomatous metamorphosis." He pretty well eliminated heat, wind and frostbite, for example, as causes of skin cancer, by statistics on the prevalence of cancer of the skin in various occupations and in various geographic locations, and concluded: "It would seem that exposure to light and to light exclusively, is the special stimulant provoking a certain proportion of skins to the metamorphosis that means carcinoma." He recognized the role of pigmentation, "especially