A 57-year-old former corporate executive faked having colon cancer to avoid a government lawsuit. Howard P. Richman could now face 10 years in jail.  In a letter to the federal judge presiding over his obstruction of justice case, he admitted impersonating a doctor in a telephone conversation with his own lawyers. His actions prompted a judge in 2007 to effectively end the case against him filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Read more about the case here.

In the Lab/In the Clinic

Nutrition experts will tell you it's never a good idea to "starve a cold and feed a fever", no matter how the old saying goes.  You always need a good nutritious diet. There have been some suggestions that when a cancer patient consumes nutrition, they are also feeding the tumor and that dietary restrictions can make tumors shrink. Now scientists in Massachusetts have identified a way to tell if a tumor might respond to calorie restriction through a genetic marker. That means possible new therapy tactics. All this has been achieved against prostate, breast, brain, and colon cancer cells in petri dishes and animal models only.  Read more about the research here.