can melanotan cause skin cancer?

I've had this question asked of me by a couple friends who have brought Epitan shares. I guess they were referring to malignant melanoma although there are also some other types of skin cancer which are less dangerous such as basal cell and squamas cell carcinomas which tend to stay localised. Cancer occurs when there is an uncontrolled proliferation of cells. It gets life threatening when it invades underlying connective tissus, enters the bloodstream and then `sets up shop' at various sites around the body. To my knowledge the improved version of alpha-MSH produced by Epitan does not cause any multiplication in the number of melanocytes (or any other cell for that matter) in the human body. It merely stimulates the cells already present in the skin and `turns them on' to produce more and more melanin. This is why melanotan will be more useful for people with darker skin types rather than people with light ones ie-redheads, since they genetically have more melanocytes to begin with.

MB