The common sunscreen ingredient benzophenone-3, also known as oxybenzone or BP-3, can play a role in the development of mammary gland tumors, according to new research in mice. “Our set of results suggest caution in using BP-3 and the need to dig deeper to understand what it can do in mammary glands and tumorigenesis,” says Richard Schwartz, professor in the microbiology and molecular genetics department at Michigan State University, who has been researching the interaction of diet and cancer cell growth and proliferation for more than 12 years. “This is the first published result that makes a convincing case that BP-3 can change cancer outcomes.” The study appears in Oncotarget. Schwartz and coauthor Sandra Haslam, professor emeritus in the physiology department, previously conducted successful experiments in mouse models that elucidated a relationship between diets high in saturated animal fats with higher incidence and shorter latency of breast cancer. “We were excited about the …