Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Gene editing to cure cancer

Okay, I admit I know about the 'genome project' but have basically ignored it because I did not understand much about it. And I still don't understand much about it. But because of what was learned about genomes and genes, there have been advances in what can now be done to treat cancer and other diseases.

So there is a little girl in England who was diagnosed with ALL (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia) shortly after her birth that was very aggressive and recurred seven weeks after treatment ended. They ran out of treatment options and as a last ditch effort, they used a gene editing tool to save her life. Since the treatment four months ago, she is doing well and is at home with her parents.

I don't really understand it well enough to explain it all. But you can read about it here.

Its too soon to tell if this is actually the cure that was hoped for and what the long term effects will be. There is  no way of telling if this could some day work for more children with cancer.

What I do find interesting is that this represents a big advancement in cancer treatment and represents the first steps in what the future could be.

1 comment:

jessica ross said...
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