For the past decade, healthcare providers have recommended that people who’ve had skin cancer take a form of Vitamin B3 called nicotinamide, following a 2015 study that showed the supplement could lower the risk of new skin cancers. New research affirms these findings with a much larger study group.
The new investigation found an “overall benefit for nicotinamide used to prevent skin cancer,” says study author Lee Wheless, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of dermatology at Vanderbilt university Medical center in Nashville and a staff physician at the Tennessee Valley Health System Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Some people getting nicotinamide especially benefited. “We were able to stratify patients by the number of prior skin cancers,finding that there was a much greater risk reduction,of more than 50 percent,when nicotinamide was started after the first skin cancer,compared to starting later after patients had developed multiple skin cancers,” Dr. Wheless says.
Study Saw Overall Risk of Skin Cancer Recurrence Drop by 14 Percent
The retrospective cohort study used electronic health record data from the Veterans Affairs Corporate Data Warehouse over a 25-year period. Nearly 34,000 patients who’d had skin cancer were included.
Researchers examined the outcomes of patients who took oral nicotinamide and had another skin cancer diagnosis. They compared 12,287 patients who received the supplement with 21,479 who didn’t.
They found that patients who took 500 milligrams of nicotinamide twice a day for at least 30 days had a 14 percent decrease in overall recurrence risk. Patients who took nicotinamide after their first skin cancer saw their risk drop the most – by 54 percent.
The biggest risk reduction was for patients with squamous cell carcinoma,the second most common type of skin cancer. It occurs when DNA damage triggers abnormalities in the squamous cells located near the skin’s surface.
“Everyone in this study had a prior skin cancer, so these data can’t speak to primary prevention, but for secondary prevention, I’d say these data are pretty convincing that there is a benefit of nicotinamide for some patients,” wheless says.
Why Could Vitamin B3 Help Prevent Skin Cancer Recurrence?
Nicotinamide, which isn’t the same as niacin (another form of B3), is believed to help repair DNA damage from ultraviolet (UV) radiation exposure and may counter the immune suppression that happens after sun damage, says Brian Zelickson, MD, a dermatologist at Schweiger Dermatology Group in New York City.