Health Briefs
June 17, 1996
Web posted at: 11:15 p.m. EDT
Skin cancer gene could help show how tumors grow
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- New research into the so-called skin cancer gene could shed light on what makes cells "grow like crazy" when tumors turn malignant in all types of cancers, scientists reported Thursday.
Scientists call the gene that causes the most common form of skin cancer the "patched gene." An inherited condition called Basal Cell Nevus Syndrome predisposes people to developing mutations in the patched gene, and getting basal cell carcinoma. Scientists found that exposure to the sun causes a similar mutation in the patched gene.
Studying the effects of the mutant patched gene in cases of skin cancer could help scientists learn more about how all cancers grow. No new treatment for sun-worshippers is likely to come out of the research, being conducted at Stanford University, but for those who suffer from Basal Cell Nevus Syndrome, the research offers hope of genetic screening for the disorder.
Abortions set to soar around world, experts say
LONDON (CNN) -- The number of abortions performed around the world is likely to soar unless access to contraceptives improves, public health experts warned on Friday. Three population and public health experts wrote in the Lancet medical journal that already, about a quarter of all pregnancies are terminated deliberately.
They predicted that abortions would rise partly because some countries use abortion to control their populations in place of contraception. In Russia, for example, the average woman will have four abortions during her lifetime.
Making abortion illegal was also unlikely to cut the number of abortions performed, the Lancet article said. Women often turn instead to clandestine abortions when legal ones are unavailable; between 60,000 and 120,000 women die every year from unsafe abortions -- most in south Asia, Africa and rural Latin America.
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