Study: Consuming too much citrus could increase risk of skin cancer

Citrus fruits.
(Image credit: iStock)

Researchers have found that people who drink copious amounts of orange juice or eat a lot of grapefruit could be raising their risk of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.

In the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the researchers say that grapefruit and oranges contain compounds called furocoumarins and psoralen. Furocoumarins make the skin more sensitive to sunlight, and furocoumarins and psoralen cause melanoma cells to multiply when exposed to ultraviolet light. The team looked at more than 40,000 men participating in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study and more than 60,000 women in the Nurses' Health Study, and found that the risk of melanoma was very low, with fewer than 2 percent ending up with melanoma over the course of 25 years.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.