Zinc, carotene, and retinol in melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer.

Serum zinc, beta-carotene, retinol, retinol binding protein and prealbumin were measured in 22 cutaneous melanoma patients at diagnosis and in 17 patients with 1 or more basal cell carcinomas of the skin recently removed. The indices measured were found to distinguish melanoma patients from non-melanoma patients with a high level of accuracy. Moreover, the predictability of zinc depends on the level of beta-carotene, and this dependence differs between melanoma and non-melanoma patients.