US Settlers Spread Rare Cancer Gene

Inactivity linked to greater risk of breast, colon cancer

(NEWSER) - And the "sitting is bad for you" drum beats on: Even people who get the recommended 30 minutes of exercise a day have a higher risk of developing cancer if they spend most of the rest of their waking hours sitting down, researchers say. An analysis presented at the American Institute for Cancer Research's annual conference yesterday suggests that every year, some 49,000 new cases of breast cancer and 43,000 of colon cancer can be linked to inactivity and to sitting down for too long. More»

Anonymity rules need to change, advocates say

(NEWSER) - A teenager inherited a "ticking time bomb in his chest" from a sperm donor father who failed to inform sperm banks that he had a rare and often fatal genetic heart defect as well as the inherited condition Marfan's syndrome. The man fathered at least 24 children through three sperm banks. Advocates say the case highlights the need for America to start regulating the fertility industry more tightly and create a national registry for donors and their offspring, ABC News reports. More»

Details still unknown; president vows to defeat disease

(NEWSER) - Last week, Hugo Chavez announced he had cancer , but kept quiet on the details; now, insiders say it’s likely colon cancer, and he's likely undergoing chemo, the Wall Street Journal reports. A tumor was discovered during the Venezuelan president's surgery for a pelvic abscess and later removed. The abscess fits with a colon cancer diagnosis, says an outside expert, who notes that descriptions thus far suggest Stage 2 or Stage 3 colon cancer. Stage 3 patients have about a 70% chance of survival beyond 5 years if they undergo chemotherapy, the doctor notes. More»

Being single doesn't help much, either: Studies

(NEWSER) - Two unrelated bits of news today on colon cancer:

• Stand up: In another sitting-is-bad-for-you study, Australian scientists say people who worked 10 years or more in sedentary jobs had twice the risk of colon cancer as those who never had a sit-all-day job, along with a 44% increased risk of rectal cancer. (Even if they were diligent exercisers outside work.) Details on the two-year study in the American Journal of Epidemiology are at the Wall Street Journal .

We're all chock-full of mutations, scientists find

(NEWSER) - Wolverine’s not so different from you and me: Scientists have found that each person has as many as 60 mutations in our genomes—portions of our DNA that aren’t matched in either of our parents. Mutations happen in both eggs and sperm cells, and neither cell’s mutations are consistently dominant in the resulting human. Scientists studied two families, each with one child, searching through 6,000 potential mutations for each child's genome. More»