According to a report released by Italian researchers, a variation of the gene for BsmI, the vitamin D receptor, seems to augment the risk of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.

The authors of the study, which will be published in the November issue of the journal Cancer, believe that the Bsml vitamin D receptor gene polymorphism is less capable of binding to vitamin D, a vitamin that can be made in the human body after exposure to ultraviolet rays from the sun. Previous studies have insinuated that this binding has protective effects against melanoma, Reuters reported. Also, in accordance with background information in a press release about the study, sun exposure can trigger anti-cancer effects.

The results “prompt further investigation on this subject and indirectly support the hypothesis that sun exposure might have an anti-melanoma effect through activation of the vitamin D system," researchers from the University of Padova said.

The study comprises data from six reports, which included almost 2,200 people suffering from melanoma and about 2,400 people without the disease. Researchers looked at the impact of five vitamin D receptor gene variations on the risk of developing melanoma. These variations (or variants) are called FokI, Cdx2, EcoRV, BsmI and TaqI.

A stated by Dr. Simone Mocellin and Dr. Donato Nitti, from the University of Padova, the findings show that the risk of melanoma in people with the BsmI variant was 30% higher. This figure would account for almost 10% of all melanoma cases.