Sunscreen with coffee 'may ward off skin cancer'

Coffee maybe the latest remedy for skin cancer.

Scientists believe sun cream made from coffee, chocolate or tea may protect against the most common form of skin cancer.

A sunscreen based on caffeine could help you tan safely, with a bronze glow. Well that's not all ladies, it may also keep wrinkles at bay.

American scientists told the Daily Mail that caffeine triggers the death of UV-damaged cells, while leaving healthy ones unharmed.

They test this idea, that caffeine provides protection by interfering with a skin protein called ATR, on genetically-engineered mice.

The GM mice and normal mice were then put under UV lamps. Those low in ATR took longer to develop skin cancers.

The researchers, from Rutgers University in New Jersey, said that cells need ATR to repair damage and if there isn’t enough of it, they self-destruct, nipping any cancer in the bud.

Caffeine lowers levels of ATR, pushing UV-damaged cells towards suicide.

The finding explains previous studies which credited drinking caffeinated, but not decaffeinated, tea and coffee with warding off non-melanoma skin cancer.

Despite their results, the researchers do not suggest people to consume vast amounts of tea or coffee just so that they can lie out in the sun.

But they say their finding could be used to create a caffeine-based sun cream.

As bonus, caffeine absorbs UV light – stopping it from damaging and wrinkling the skin.

However researchers cautioned that it remains unclear what effect, if any, such a sunscreen would have against the more deadly malignant melanoma form of skin cancer.

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