Sun exposure is not the only major risk factor for the deadly skin cancer, melanoma. There may also be a genetic component linked to people with red hair and fair skin, a major study in Nature magazine suggests.

You don’t need to tell that soccer writer Gareth Wheeler, a host for TSN 1050 Radio in Toronto. The 32-year-old has been battling melanoma for almost seven years and believes the study is on the right track.

“I haven’t read the study but I guarantee that my genetics had something to do with this,” Wheeler said. “I honestly think it’s part genetics and part sun and I really think it’s partially due to the environment around us, the food that we eat, the air we breathe and the water we drink. I really believe it’s a combination.”

Dr. David Fisher, a biologist specializing in cancer at Massachusetts General Hospital who led the study, identified a genetic mutation linked to redheaded, fair-skinned people and pheomelanin — the “red pigment” found in their skin — which leads to a greater incidence of melanoma.

“There is something about the redhead genetic background that is behaving in a carcinogenic fashion independent of UV (ultraviolent light),” Fisher told Nature magazine.

“Sun screen has not had nearly the impact on melanoma as we would wish, for example, as much impact as it has on non-melanoma types of skin cancers. It suggested all along something unique is happening in melanoma,” Fisher told the Star.

In the study, researchers looked at mice with three different skin pigment types: olive-skinned, albino and “ginger.” The genes of the mice were “tweaked” to make the mice more susceptible to developing benign moles.

But Fisher said researchers were shocked when half of the “ginger” mice developed melanoma even before they were exposed to UV light, which was intended to be a major part of the study’s purpose.

“The goal was to study ultraviolet radiation and its involvement with melanoma. But before we could even get to that, suddenly these tumours started to grow (in the “ginger” mice) and that was the nature of our shock,” Fisher said.

Wheeler said he has played “competitive” soccer his entire life, both at the University of Western Ontario and at the provincial level. But he said the “mark” on his lower left leg was invariably protected from the sun by the long socks he wore on the field.

After learning about the death of long-time TSN producer Paul McLean from melanoma in a company email, Wheeler heeded his anxious parents’ wishes and was examined by a doctor. The diagnosis: melanoma, which has since spread into his lymph system.

“I have melanoma, I’m living with melanoma and I’m fighting melanoma as best as I can, using alternate natural therapies for right now and just waiting to determine what the next approach will be,” Wheeler said.

He is trying to turn his experience into a positive doing awareness and advocacy work.

“I want to get the message out that if you have bumps or spots or things that are changing on your body, go get them checked out because obviously the earlier you get to this disease, the better chance you have,” he said.

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Although two drugs approved by the U.S. Federal Drug Administration in the past two years have only had limited success — melanoma tumours have typically reappeared in patients within six to 12 months — there is reason for melanoma patients to have hope, Fisher said.

“There’s explosive activity, it’s a very exciting time, but we’re not where we need to be. There’s a lot of work ahead still,” he said.