Nicotinamide, also known as niacinamine, is a form of vitamin B3 that's been used topically

for decades in the cosmetic field to prevent skin aging, as I've already covered.

So researchers decided to put it to the test orally for skin cancer prevention.

In a Petri dish, skin samples taken from breast reduction in tummy tuck surgeries,

exposed to UV with or without niacinamine, found that it enhanced DNA repair. Would this

translate out into less cancer? In a phase two trial, dozens of individuals with four more

pre-cancerous actinic carotoses, each were randomized to take a placebo or 500 milligrams of

niacinamide once or twice a day. Within two months, there was a 35% reduction in actinic carotoses

in the twice-a-day group and a 15% reduction in the once-a-day group compared

to placebo. It's not that they developed fewer in those months, but more spontaneously

disappeared in the niacinamide groups. What about actual cancers? By month four, there were five

times fewer cancers. Eleven placebo participants developed twin new skin cancers versus only two nicinicide participants

developing a total of four new cancers.

Normally it would be difficult to fund studies on non-patentable products that only cost a few cents a day,

but the results of this and a similar study on organ transplant patients were so extraordinary,

On Track was born.

Oral nicotinamide to reduce actinic cancer was a publicly funded phase three trial,

randomizing hundreds of people with a personal history of skin cancer,

actinic means UV-induced, to 500 milligrams of nicotinamide twice daily or

placebo for a full year.

By the end, there were 25 percent fewer cancers with no significant side effects for

just pennies a day.

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