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Published online April 27, 2009
PEDIATRICS Vol. 123 No. 5 May 2009, pp. e896-e900 (doi:10.1542/peds.2008-2986)
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ARTICLE

Neonatal Blue-Light Phototherapy Does Not Increase Nevus Count in 9-Year-Old Children

Emmanuel Mahé, MDa, Alain Beauchet, MDb, Philippe Aegerter, MD, PhDb, Philippe Saiag, MD, PhDa

Departments of a Dermatology
b Public Health, Ambroise Paré University Hospital, Research Unit EA 4339, Skin, Cancer, and Environment, University of Versailles-Saint Quentin en Yvelines, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Boulogne-Billancourt, France

OBJECTIVE. One of the most important risk factors for melanoma is the number of acquired common and atypical nevi in childhood. The role played by neonatal blue-light phototherapy in the increasing incidence of common and atypical melanocytic nevi in childhood or adolescence has been discussed recently with discordant results.

PATIENTS AND METHODS. We designed a multicenter study to assess the effects of neonatal blue-light phototherapy on nevus count in a cohort of 9-year-old children. We counted back and arm nevi as a function of size in 828 children included in a French photoprotection educational campaign. History of neonatal phototherapy, phototype, skin, hair and eye color, and sunburn were assessed through questionnaires to which both parents and children responded, and a nevus count was performed by trained nurses blinded to phototherapy history.

RESULTS. Mean nevus count was 16.7 per child. Twenty-two percent of the children had received neonatal blue-light phototherapy. Neonatal phototherapy had no effect on the nevus count irrespective of nevi location, nevi size, or phototype of the children. A light phototype, skin, and hair color; blue/green eyes; and history of sunburn were closely correlated with an increase in nevus count.

CONCLUSIONS. This study found no evidence for a major role of blue-light phototherapy on nevus count in 9-year-old children. It underlines the dominant effect of phototype characteristics and history of sunburn in childhood on the early development of melanocytic nevi.

Key Words: neonatal blue-light phototherapy • melanocytic nevus • melanoma

Abbreviations: NNPT—neonatal blue-light phototherapy

Accepted Jan 22, 2009.


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