Defective Growth Gene in Rare Dwarfism Disorder Stunts Cancer and Diabetes

Thursday, February 17, 2011 - 16:50 in Health & Medicine

For the past 22 years Jaime Guevara-Aguirre has served as the de facto physician for a truly unique community in Ecuador. His patients stand on average 1.2 meters tall, a result of a rare genetic disorder known as Laron syndrome . Of the approximately 300 people in the world known to have the condition, a third reside in the remote mountainside villages of southern Ecuador. Another remarkable fact about Guevara-Aguirre’s patients: virtually none of them suffer from cancer or diabetes. [More]

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