According to a US study published the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday, a caffeine-based sunscreen on can help a person tan safely --- since coffee has been found to bring down the risk of skin cancer by helping kill off damaged cells which otherwise have the potential to turn into tumors.

The findings of the study indicate that the drinking of caffeine in moderation, as well as probably even applying coffee to the skin, can prove to be advantageous in keeping non-melanoma cancer – which is the most-commonly-diagnosed form of all skin cancers – at bay.

In the opinion of the researchers, sun cream comprising coffee, chocolate or tea give the skin a bronzed glow and can protect it against non-melanoma cancer, as well as apparently even ward off wrinkles.

In order to put to test the idea that caffeine provides protection by interfering with a skin protein called ATR, the researchers genetically-engineered mice so that they produced much less ATR than usual; and found that, when placed under UV lamps, the mice low in ATR took longer to develop skin cancers, as compared to normal mice.

Noting that caffeine lowers the levels of the ATR, thus pushing UV-damaged cells towards self-destruction, one of the study’s authors, Allan Conney, - who is the director of the Susan Lehman Cullman Laboratory for Cancer Research at Rutgers University in New Jersey – said: “Caffeine might become a weapon in prevention because it inhibits ATR and also acts as a sunscreen and directly absorbs damaging UV light.”