Take a closer look at your eyes. What can your eyes tell you about your melanoma risk? Well we already know that people with light colored eyes, blue or green tend to have a higher risk of skin cancer in general. A recent study has shown that pigmented lesions on the iris (that’s the colored part of your eye) may be a risk factor for skin melanoma in patients under 40 years old. The presence of three or more iris pigmented lesions resulted in a 1.80-fold increase risk for melanoma in participants younger than 40 years. These results suggest that iris pigmented lesions can serve as a marker for younger people at higher risk for melanoma. The risk increases proportionally to number of iris lesions.

Article Citation:

The British Journal of Dermatology
Iris Pigmented Lesions as a Marker of Cutaneous Melanoma Risk: An Australian Case-Control Study
Br J Dermatol 2018 Jan 08;[EPub Ahead of Print], AM Laino, EG Berry, K Jagirdar, KJ Lee, DL Duffy, HP Soyer, RA Sturm