A rare genetic disorder could be the key to unlocking cancer-fighting drugs. These small people revealed something big!

Endocrinologists have stumbled upon a rare form of dwarfism that may prove helpful in the fight against cancer. Largo syndrome differs from other types of dwarfism. Usually people with dwarfism lack growth hormones, but people with Laron syndrome have too much of the hormone. Their cells just do not respond to growth hormones. This protects them against DNA damage that fuels cancer growth.

Arlan Rosenbloom has been studying a cluster of people in Ecuador who all have this rare genetic defect. His investigation has led to one of the most remarkable discoveries ever made in modern endocrinology: a concentrated population of individuals virtually immune to cancer!

Endocrinologist Guevara-Aguirre met people with this type of dwarfism, discussed their histories, and read their records and discovered that none of them got cancer. He conducted an in-depth investigation, comparing cancer rates in the Laron syndrome patients with those of their relatives of normal height. After five years of laboratory experiments and analysis they reported that, out of of 99 Laron syndrome cases, only one case of cancer existed on record—and that patient had survived!

The first step in turning the lessons of Laron syndrome into anticancer drugs has been taken. In 2008 Dr. Longo founded DSR Pharmaceuticals to develop a pill that blocks the growth hormone receptor.

(Source)