People with a ‘hidden’ ginger hair gene are officially more at risk of getting skin cancer
Scientists say being a red head can boost the risk of developing the disease by the equivalent of an extra 21 YEARS of being in the sun
REDHEADS like Prince Harry, Chris Evans and Mick Hucknall better stock up on sun cream.
For the first time scientists have found a strong link between the inherited "ginger gene", which gives people red hair, freckles and pale skin, and skin cancer.
Scarily, research found the MC1R gene variant can increase the risk of skin cancer by the equivalent of spending an extra 21 YEARS in the sun.
While the prince, the former Top Gear host and the Simply Red singer are prone to sunburn as they all have two copies of the gene, the study found even a single copy of the variant, present in people who may not have red hair or freckles, boosts the amount of gene mutations linked with malignant melanoma - the most deadly type of skin cancer.
This is because the gene affects the type of melanin skin pigment they produce which makes them more vulnerable to damage from ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun.
UV rays are notorious for harming DNA, and people with ginger hair have a pigment believed to allow more of them to penetrate their skin, which potentially increases their risk of melanoma.
Dr David Adams, lead researcher from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, near Cambridge, said: "It has been known for a while that a person with red hair has an increased likelihood of developing skin cancer but this is the first time that the gene has been proven to be associated with skin cancers with more mutations.
"Unexpectedly, we also showed that people with only a single copy of the gene variant still have a much higher number of tumour mutations than the rest of the population."
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"This is one of the first examples of a common genetic profile having a large impact on a cancer genome and could help better identify people at higher risk of developing skin cancer."
There are more red haired people per head of population in the UK than anywhere else in the world - six per cent compared with one to two per cent elsewhere.
Professor Tim Bishop, joint lead author and director of the Leeds Institute of Cancer and Pathology at the University of Leeds, said this study could be groundbreaking for discovering how the disease develops.
He explained: "This is the first study to look at how the inherited MC1R gene affects the number of spontaneous mutations in skin cancers and has significant implications for understanding how skin cancers form.
"It has only been possible due to the large-scale data available.
"The tumours were sequenced in the USA, from patients all over the world and the data was made freely accessible to all researchers.
"This study illustrates how important international collaboration and free public access to data-sets is to research."
The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, confirmed the MC1R gene variant boosted the amount of spontaneous mutations in the skin brought about by UV rays.
From looking at data from skin tumour DNA sequences collected from more than 400 people, scientists found people with tumours carrying the MC1R gene variant had 42 per cent more sun-related mutations on average.
Surprisingly they also discovered the gene increased levels of other skin tumour mutations which aren't related to exposure to UV rays, which suggests it's involved in cancer processes not caused by sunlight.
Dr Julie Sharp, head of health and patient information at Cancer Research UK, pointed out: "This important research explains why red-haired people have to be so careful about covering up in strong sun.
"It also underlines that it isn't just people with red hair who need to protect themselves from too much sun.
"People who tend to burn rather than tan, or who have fair skin, hair or eyes, or who have freckles or moles are also at higher risk.
"For all of us the best way to protect skin when the sun is strong is to spend time in the shade between 11am and 3pm, and to cover up with a T-shirt, hat and sunglasses.
"And sunscreen helps protect the parts you can't cover; use one with at least SPF15 and 4 or more stars, put on plenty and reapply regularly."