Viagra Melanoma: The Long Road to Concern

Washington, DCIt’s a given that all drugs, regardless of stripe or indication, come saddled with side effects. Sometimes it’s a possibility, other times a probability. And sometimes the risk starts small, then grows. This appears to be the case with Viagra Skin Cancer Diagnosis, where concern started small four years ago, only to have risen over time.

A recent issue of the Drug Injury Watch blog references that the possibility of skin cancer associated with Viagra use was raised in an article published in a scholarly journal in 2011. Specifically, “Hard Times for Oncogenic BRAF-Expressing Melanoma Cells” appeared in the January 2011 issue of Cancer Cell. The article suggested that [malignant cutaneous melanoma] progression occurred in about 20 percent of the cases [progressing] to an aggressive, metastasizing form of the disease with poor patient survival rates.

A subsequent study by Marais and colleagues (Arozarena et al, 2011) continued the discussion about the possibility and potentiality of sildenafil melanoma, while at the same time articulating that there were, at the time, no reports linking sildenafil (Viagra) to an increased risk of melanoma metastasis.

Then along comes the June (2014) study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, suggesting that Viagra users were 84 percent more likely to develop sildenafil melanoma over a 10-year period. That’s a dramatic increase over the 20 percent risk suggestion from four years prior.

According to various sources, the study looked at 26,000 men. Those who had taken Viagra - about six percent of the total - presented with roughly double the risk of Viagra melanoma over those who had not taken the drug at all. The study, affiliated with authors from Harvard Medical School, Brown University, Indiana University and Tianjin Medical University in China, adds fuel to the fire and further broadens concerns over Viagra side effects that can also include anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION).

Patrons of Viagra already have to worry about the possibility of an erection lasting too long - or one that refuses to abate - for which a trip to the hospital could be necessary. The irony is that the erectile dysfunction associated with the need for Viagra in the first place can quickly become ED in reverse - an erection that refuses to quit.

However, it remains the longer-term Viagra side effects such as the potential for Viagra Skin Cancer Diagnosis that continues to fuel many a Viagra lawsuit. Attorneys report an expectation to file additional lawsuits within “weeks” or “months.”

For its part, Viagra manufacturer Pfizer Inc. stands by its stance that it has not identified a safety concern or an association involving Viagra melanoma. The legal industry and consumers continue to watch with interest.