The anti-inflammatory drug celecoxib which is widely used may protect against some kinds of skin cancer.

A latest study which examined the effects of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug called celecoxib on skin cancer was conducted on 60 people who had a genetic predisposition to a type of skin cancer which is called basal cell carcinoma.

Almost half of the total participants were administered 200mg of celecoxib two times a day by orally for two years whereas the rest of the participants received a placebo.

It was observed that all the participants in the study continued to develop new cancers but the treatment with celecoxib reduced the growth of skin tumors by about 50 percent in comparison to the placebo.

Patients who received celecoxib did not reduce tumor number dramatically in those patients who had more than 15 skin lesions upon entering the study.

Not even a single patient in the study died or suffered adverse cardiovascular events attributed to participation in the study despite the trial being discontinued because of concerns over cardiovascular complications related to the treatment.

It was found in previous researches that celecoxib stopped the growth of another type of skin cancer which is called squamous cell carcinoma in mice.