A New York based-urologist has recently debunked a years-long theory that melanoma and Viagra are related, as it has appeared for years that men who use Viagra or other related drugs to treat erectile dysfunction (such as Cialis or Levitra) are more likely to develop this dangerous type of skin cancer; however, it's not exactly the medication risking them.
In a recent melanoma Viagra study, researchers have discovered that, while there is a tendency for men who use erectile dysfunction drugs to develop melanoma, this isn't because of the drug in itself but rather the socioeconomic status of those who take it, as well as the lifestyle associated with it, which includes regular trips to the beach or places where sun exposure is high.
Stacy Loeb, a urologist from New York University, led the study on whether melanoma and Viagra are directly related, after receiving questions from her patients for more than a year after the 2014 proving that men under erectile dysfunction drugs were far more likely to develop skin cancer.
Science Daily reports that the recent melanoma Viagra study was published on June 23 in the online version of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), under the name "Use of Phosphodiesterase Type 5 Inhibitors for Erectile Dysfunction and Risk of Malignant Melanoma."
According to Forbes, for the Viagra melanoma study, Loeb and her team focused on the records of 20,235 men in Sweden (mostly white), looking into their medical history and their ED drugs consumption, finding no elevated risk of skin cancer with the increased use of any of the popular erectile dysfunction drugs.
However, the results proved to head to a different direction: the risk was actually associated to socioeconomic status and the lifestyle associated with it.
"What our study results show is that groups of men who are more likely to get malignant melanoma include those with higher disposable incomes and education-men who likely can also afford more vacations in the sun-and who also have the means to buy erectile dysfunction medications, which are very expensive," said Loeb regarding the study on melanoma and Viagra, according to Futurity.
