What I’m Working On: A “Sweet” Cure for Skin Cancer

By Erin M. Burns, PhD, MSPH

“We are going to have to do something to cover up those tan lines!”

“Your back is so tanned, you look like a native islander!”

“Erin, you are going to get skin cancer!”

I am blonde and wear a fair-skinned coat in winter. But these are just a couple of exclamations I heard through my high school and college years as a bronzed, sun-worshiping lifeguard at our neighborhood pool. As Spring Break approaches on college campuses, and students I know head South with bikinis and beach towels, I think about the chances they are taking. And I worry.

Luckily, I am not one of the nearly 3 million Americans diagnosed with non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) annually with an update. But as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), I am researching preventive treatments for this type of skin cancer to help decrease the statistics and help change the way we think about health, beauty and yes, I know this is ambitious, Spring Break.

NMSC is the most common cancer and nearly completely preventable with the regular use of sunscreen. However, many people believe that they look better and healthier with a tan and continue to sunbathe or use tanning beds. Billions of dollars are spent treating NMSC each year. Although surgery successfully treats most NMSC, the surgeries can be disfiguring and nearly 9,000 people die annually. Needlessly.

Here is where my research comes in. We are working on treatments to prevent the development of skin cancer in the first place, even if people have been tanning for years, like I did in my youth. Our laboratory at UAB has been investigating a specific type of honey, and we found that by drinking water with this honey, tumor development is significantly decreased in our animal model (manuscript in progress).

This treatment has not been tested sufficiently in humans yet, but this sweet treatment could help reduce skin cancer incidence. In the future, as you are getting ready for a week at the beach for vacation, or Spring Break, you may be packing a beach umbrella , sunless tanning lotion, and a jar of honey.

In fact, now that I think about it, Winnie the Pooh was right: “The only reason for being a bee is to make honey. And the only reason for making honey is so I can eat it.”

Have a Sweet Spring Break!