Colon Cancer

Former U.S. Rep. Bill Dickinson, 82, a Democrat turned Republican who championed a strong national defense and helped make Alabama a two-party state, died Monday at his home in Montgomery, Ala., after suffering from colon cancer. Dickinson served in the House from 1965 to 1993. A former judge in city, juvenile and circuit courts in his native Opelika, Ala., he was one of several Democrats recruited to change parties in 1964 and run as Republicans for Congress in a state that had been solidly Democratic for a century.

Roman Catholic bishops and political leaders across the Philippines offered prayers today for former president and democracy icon Corazon Aquino after her family announced that she had colon cancer. Aquino, 75, has started treatment, but no details were available. Daughter Kris, fighting back tears, read a statement on live television Monday saying her mother had gone in for tests after suffering from high blood pressure, difficulty breathing and other problems during the Christmas holidays.

A type of colon lesion that was thought to be rare in Americans is actually relatively common and, surprisingly, is much more likely to turn cancerous than the polyps that doctors normally screen for, according to Palo Alto researchers. Complicating the situation is that the lesions, known as nonpolypoid or flat lesions, are harder to detect during colonoscopy.

Medical experts recommended Wednesday that a less-invasive procedure known as a virtual colonoscopy and a stool DNA test join the arsenal of screenings for colon cancer in the hopes that more people would get checked out. The recommendations bring to six the number of screening tests suggested for spotting signs of colon cancer, said Dr. Otis Brawley, national chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, one of the groups that made the recommendations.

People with Down syndrome suffer cancer less than most other people, and a study in mice published Thursday in the journal Nature gives one possible explanation -- they produce higher levels of a protein that may keep tumors from growing. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that a gene called Ets2 protected mice from colon cancer. The researchers used mice bred to develop colon cancer at extreme rates, and genetically engineered them to produce extra amounts of Ets2. The more Ets2 the mice had, the less likely they were to develop colon cancer.

When Mr. and Mrs. George Frye came to the New World aboard the good ship William and Mary sometime in the early 1630s, they brought with them all of their worldly possessions, at least two of their four children -- and a deadly genetic mutation. One of the couple had a spontaneous mutation in a gene called APC that increases the risk of developing colon cancer 17-fold, researchers from the University of Utah report.

Colon cancer survivors who eat a "Western" diet high in red meat, fats and refined grains are more than three times as likely to have a recurrence as those who consume a "prudent" diet high in fish, poultry, fruits and vegetables, researchers said Tuesday. Scientists already knew that avoiding a Western diet could reduce the risk of contracting colon cancer in the first place, but this is the first study associating the diet with a recurrence of the disease, Dr. Jeffrey A.

Adding folic acid to flours, pastas and rice has reduced the rate of spina bifida and anencephaly in the U.S., sparing 1,000 babies each year from these devastating birth defects. But a recent study suggests those health gains may have come at a cost: an extra 15,000 cases of colon cancer annually. The report, from Tufts University, is the latest to raise a cautionary note about a public-health policy that has been largely viewed as a success. "Have we done more harm than benefit?" said Dr.

Hundreds of messages from viewers poured in Friday wishing KTLA-TV Channel 5 anchor Hal Fishman a speedy recovery and return to his 10 p.m. newscast. Fishman, 75, was hospitalized earlier this week after collapsing at his home and has since been diagnosed with colon cancer, station officials said Friday. Doctors were treating Fishman for an infection he suffered after the collapse when they discovered the cancer, which has spread to his liver, said interim news director Rich Goldner.

Five small polyps removed Saturday from President Bush's colon will be examined under a microscope for signs of cancer, but the White House said none "appeared worrisome" -- they are considered likely to be benign. The National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., will conduct the tests. Results will be announced by Tuesday and "will determine the final diagnosis and recommendations for future examinations," according to a White House statement.