Rare Ecuadorian syndrome offers clues to preventing cancer and diabetes, researchers say

Researchers studying people with Laron syndrome — a rare genetic condition that stunts growth to under 1.2 metres — in southern Ecuador have found strikingly lower rates of cancer and diabetes than in the wider population, raising hopes the biology could one day be harnessed to help prevent disease. The findings come from a community in and around Piñas, in El Oro province, home to an unusually high concentration of the roughly 840 people worldwide known to have the condition. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8jnlmek8reo

The syndrome, also known as growth hormone insensitivity, is caused by a mutation in the growth hormone receptor in the liver that prevents the body from producing insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). A study led by endocrinologist Dr Jaime Guevara followed about 100 people with Laron syndrome and some 1,600 normal-height relatives in the same villages over 22 years. It recorded no cases of diabetes and only one non-fatal cancer among those with the syndrome, compared with 5% diabetes and 17% cancer among their normal-height relatives — leading the team to attribute the difference to growth-hormone activity. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8jnlmek8reo

The researchers theorise that IGF-1 helps protect cancer cells from dying through a process called apoptosis, so people with lower IGF-1 levels have lower cancer incidence. A new research paper documenting all known cases of the mutation identified between 1966 and 2025, by Prof Zvi Laron of Tel Aviv University — who first described the condition 60 years ago — is due to be published later in July, the BBC reports. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8jnlmek8reo

Globally, most people with Laron syndrome live in Ecuador's El Oro and Loja provinces, where generations of isolated, intra-community marriage concentrated the recessive mutation. Scientists caution that much more work is needed before any treatment exists, and note the protection is not absolute: one of the Ecuadorian twins featured in the reporting, María del Cisne, was diagnosed with colon cancer two years ago and treated with surgery and chemotherapy. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8jnlmek8reo

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