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Comment by alejohausner | Hacker News Reader

There are several kinds of skin cancer: carcinomas (which don't usually kill you) and melanona (which does). Carcinomas are indeed positively correlated to sun exposure, but oddly enough melanoma is negatively correlated: sun exposure protects you from melanoma.

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Do you have sources I can read on this? I wife has had a couple bouts of melanoma in her mid 20s and her dermatologist tells her to stay of of the sun.

Her dermatologist is right. Take medical advice from MDs, not HN.

My wife is also a melanoma survivor (Stage III) and yeah, the notion that sunlight is negatively correlated with melanoma is utter nonsense.

(citation needed) on the melanoma. UV is basically identified as the main cause of melanoma. Unless you meant exposure in low-UV situations. But that's a massive caveat that really needs to be added to that message.

Everything about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanoma basically disagrees.

That does not sound correct. Sun exposure is still linked to melanoma risks. Regular sun exposure does increase protection (due to melanin in skin?) but doesn't remove the risks.

Being active in the sun for long period in New Zealand or Australia for example would put you at higher risk for melanoma due to higher UV exposure

> but oddly enough melanoma is negatively correlated: sun exposure protects you from melanoma.

I hate to be that guy, but: citation needed.

I did a quick search and the best I could find was speculation that sun might be protective, but the majority of what I found said sun exposure increased your risk of melanoma.

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