Cancer fightersJennifer over at Pinwheels pointed out this article over at WebMD, Down Syndrome May Curb Cancer. The focus of the article is that a gene called Ets2 seems to help reduce cancer rates and reduce the size of tumors in people with Down syndrome. The gene is located on the 21st chromosome so people with Down syndrome have an extra Ets2. Until this recent study, Ets2 had always been thought to be a cause of cancer but research was done on why cancer rates are lower in people with Down syndrome and it was realized that the extra Ets2 seems to tip the balance and turns Ets2 into a cancer fighter. This could lead to drugs to fight cancer in the future. As one researcher said, if Down syndrome did not exist there would have been no point to doing the over-expression research on Ets2 and an exciting potential treatment would have been missed. And we will all owe a debt to people with Down syndrome if a drug is developed from this research.