title: UV wavelength-dependent DNA damage and human non-melanoma and melanoma skin cancer.
abstract: Ultraviolet (UV) irradiation from the sun has been epidemiologically and mechanistically linked to skin cancer, a spectrum of diseases of rising incidence in many human populations. Both non-melanoma and melanoma skin cancers are associated with sunlight exposure. In this review, we discuss the UV wavelength-dependent formation of the major UV-induced DNA damage products, their repair and mutagenicity and their potential involvement in sunlight-associated skin cancers. We emphasize the major role played by the cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPDs) in skin cancer mutations relative to that of (6-4) photoproducts and oxidative DNA damage. Collectively, the data implicate the CPD as the DNA lesion most strongly involved in human cancers induced by sunlight.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cancer Biology, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, Duarte, CA 91010, USA. gpfeifer@coh.org
authors.forename: Gerd P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Pfeifer
authors.forename: Ahmad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Besaratinia
mesh_terms: D004249:DNA Damage; D006801:Humans; D008545:Melanoma / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics; D009154:Mutation; D009381:Neoplasms, Radiation-Induced / Q000235:genetics*; D011740:Pyrimidine Dimers; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics; D014466:Ultraviolet Rays
chemical_list: D011740:Pyrimidine Dimers