Coffee, or, better put, caffeine, could become a new weapon in the fight against skin cancer. Dr. Conney, Professor of Pharmacology at the University of New Jersey.

And his team conducted clinical trials using a caffeinated lotion on mice.They exposed 90 hairless mice to high dosage of UV rays twice a day, for 20 days.

Then the mice were divided into three groups. One group was treated with caffeine solution, second one was treated with epigallocatechin gallate or EGCG solution extracted from green tea, and a third group wasn’t treated at all.

With large dose of UV rays all mice suffered skin cancer. Treatment with caffeine reduced cancerous tumors by 72% and non cancerous tumors by 44%. Treatment with EGCG reduced cancerous tumors by 66%.

Unlike sunscreen of SPF, which protect the skin by absorbing UV rays, caffeine acts directly on cells. Apparently caffeine is capable of blocking the genetic changes in cells, and it seems that caffeine acts selectively, only to diseased cells. If clinical trials confirm this discovery we can freely say that a new method for skin cancer prevention is discovered.