A new study has revealed that there are good chances that people who have vitiligo, a skin disease, are naturally protected against skin cancer.

A rare condition which affects about 1 in 200, vitiligo ends up causing pale skin patches that have less amounts of pigment and burn easily, which leads to an assumed increased risk of skin cancer.

But the exact opposite has been discovered by the study undertaken by the University of London. In a research of 4,300 people, experts discovered a common gene mutation that end up increasing the chances of contracting vitiligo, but cuts back the risk of skin cancer.

"Although this may provide some consolation for people with vitiligo, they should still be careful in the sun. As they know, they sunburn quickly, and a lower risk of cancer doesn't mean zero", warned study author Professor Dot Bennett, from St George's, University of London.

Details of the research, which involved genetic testing of 1,514 patients with vitiligo and 2,813 without it, have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.