Researchers have discovered a surprising link between cancer and autism: Some people with a mutated gene known to cause cancer have autism.
Scientists know that a gene called PTEN causes cancers of the colon, breast, thyroid, and other organs. Ten percent of children with mutations of this gene have autism, as do about 50 percent of children with gene mutations that result in certain types of brain and kidney cancers.
“It’s eerie,” Evan Eichler, University of Washington professor of genome science, says of the finding.
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