Cancer is one of the most prevalent diseases in modern society, ranking as the second-highest cause of death according to the CDC, but as scientists continue to make monumental leaps in gene-editing technology, the possibility of a safe and effective cancer treatment seems likelier than ever before.
The problem with gene editing is that for most of history it has been difficult, expensive, and unreliable, but in 2013 a gene-editing tool called CRISPR was released that solved almost all of these problems and led to a revolution of gene-editing scientific development.
Over the last few years, as scientists learned the best ways to use the technology, their attention has slowly shifted towards the idea of genetically altering human cells to better detect and destroy cancer cells. To the scientist’s credit, they have been very cautious while researching this technology, while also weighing the moral dilemma of altering the human genome.
The main reason that scientists have to be cautious while altering human DNA is that if genes are edited improperly or carelessly, the DNA could become mutated and potentially even cancerous. Even though there is risk involved, the cancer treatments that have been proposed through CRISPR are very promising overall.
What is happening in the Lab
In an attempt to discover why cancers appear in some people and not others, scientists needed to identify the gene. Scientists have identified that this gene is used by cancer cells to repair themselves, and in order to find out more about the gene, scientists genetically altered mice to lack this gene. After exposing the mice to carcinogens, scientists found that the mice were much less likely to develop cancerous tumors.
The implications of this discovery have the potential to be even more significant, as it could lead to the creation of a method for non-mutated cells to effectively repair themselves.
As research on gene editing continues to develop, it seems very possible that a potential treatment for cancer involving alterations of the human genome could lead to a new era where we don’t have to fear this horrible disease that kills hundreds of thousands of people each year.