Blame our evolutionary risk of cancer on body mass

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A key enzyme that cuts short our cellular lifespan in an effort to thwart cancer has now been linked to body mass. Until now, scientists believed that our relatively long lifespans controlled the expression of telomerase--an enzyme that can lengthen the lives of cells, but can also increase the rate of cancer.


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All News summaries for December 06, 2006

Booming business helps patients navigate medicine

38 minutes ago | User rating: not rated yet
(AP) -- After three surgeries, Judy Sherer still had chronic pain in her left shoulder. She'd lost faith in her doctors, and in despair tried a new health benefit offered by her employer.

Researchers identify gene responsible for rare childhood disease

46 minutes ago | User rating: not rated yet
The chromosomal abnormality that causes a rare, but often fatal, disorder that affects infants has been identified by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, who happened to treat two young ...

Genetic mutation identified for eye complaint

2 hours ago | User rating: not rated yet
An international research collaboration including research teams from the Children's Hospital in Boston (USA), King's College London and the Peninsula Medical School, has identified a gene that, when mutated, causes Duane ...

US fentanyl deaths topped 1,000 over 2 years

2 hours ago | User rating: not rated yet
(AP) -- More than 1,000 people died over two years from an illegal version of the painkiller fentanyl, the government reported Thursday in its first national tally of those deaths.

Officials: Search for HIV vaccine needs overhaul

2 hours ago | User rating: not rated yet
(AP) -- Scientists will have to take "enormous intellectual leaps" to develop an AIDS vaccine in the coming years, say researchers clearly frustrated by the failure of a once-promising shot.