Nicotinamide (Vitamin B3) may help stave off melanoma in high-risk individuals, a new review study suggests.

“Nicotinamide has been shown in a clinical trial—called ONTRAC—to reduce the incidence of non-melanoma skin cancer in high-risk individuals and it would be worthwhile to determine whether it would also be useful for high-risk melanoma patients,” concludes lead author Dr. Gary Halliday, of the University of Sydney in Australia.  (The ONTRAC or The Oral Nicotinamide To Reduce Actinic Cancer study was a phase III trial of nicotinamide in the prevention of non-melanoma skin cancers.)

Nicotinamide can help reduce or reverse DNA damage, inflammation, and immunosuppression caused by ultraviolet radiation, the review authors point out.

The cost of nicotinatimide is approximately $10 per month if taken at 1g per day as recommended.

The study appears in Photodermatology, Photoimmunology & Photomedicine.