July 13, 2015 – Oranges and Grapefruits

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Anchor lead: Should you shy away from citrus fruits because of skin cancer risk? Elizabeth Tracey reports

Can orange and grapefruit consumption increase your risk for melanoma, the most deadly type of skin cancer?  That’s the conclusion of number crunching from two very large ongoing studies of health professionals, but Redonda Miller, an internal medicine expert at Johns Hopkins, says not so fast.

Miller: The recent study from the Journal of Clinical Oncology looking at the consumption of citrus fruit and its association with an increased risk of melanoma did strike me as a bit unusual. That there was a significant association with orange juice but not oranges, and an association with grapefruit but not grapefruit juice.  It calls into question a little bit about the pathogenesis behind those findings.  I think it would serve us well to have these findings replicated in other large studies and perhaps even prospectively in randomized clinical trials.   :31

Miller says for now, moderation in all things, including consumption of citrus and sun exposure, seems like a practical choice.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.