Health Report

THE GOOD NEWS

-- Vanity does not cause cancer. Countering previous reports, a study of the personal habits of 573,369 women found that long-term use of hair dyes does not trigger fatal malignancies.

-- If an expectant mother possesses the stamina and desire to jog, cross- country ski or otherwise kick up her heels during a normal pregnancy, she may do so without risk to herself or her fetus, the latest evidence suggests.

-- Scientists report that they are on the trail of a defective gene that allows tumors to spread to other parts of the body. By repairing the gene, researchers might one day be able to save more cancer patients' lives.

THE BAD NEWS

-- Studies have linked smoking to the development of benign intestinal polyps. A survey of 170,000 people has shown that smokers have up to twice the risk of developing colon cancer as nonsmokers. For most people, the cancer takes as long as 35 years to develop.

-- AIDS has muted much of the progress that had been made in treating hemophilia. In the U.S. in 1979, the typical hemophiliac could expect to live until 57. But by 1985, when tests were developed to protect the blood supply, more than half of all Americans with hemophilia had been accidentally infected with the AIDS virus. Their average life-span has dropped to 40 years.

Sources -- GOOD: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Oncogene.

BAD: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, American Journal of Hematology.