Most of us will have been affected in some way by cancer in our lives. It is an unfortunately common and much feared disease that fills every person with dread. If we tried to visualise cancer we would probably see it as some sort of foreign invasion that gets into the body and causes complete destruction. In actual fact, cancer develops very quietly and very calmly within the body and is produced by the body itself.
Cancer develops as a result of the abnormal behaviour of our cells. The body is continuously producing new cells by dividing the cells we already have, and old or damaged cells die off as part of the natural process of cell regeneration that keeps our body happy and healthy. Sometimes when a gene within a cell is damaged, old cells will not die off and new cells will develop in an uncontrollable manner resulting in a tumour.
Much research has been carried out to try to discover what causes these cells to start to behave abnormally and it is now believed that almost every cancer is caused by a faulty or damaged gene within a cell. Before a cell can start to behave in this way it is thought that a gene has to undergo a number of changes and mutations and these changes are, in majority, thought to be brought about by lifestyle and environmental factors. It is believed that only around 5-10% of cancers are caused by inherited faulty genes that increase the risk of developing cancer.
Gene therapy is being heralded as a major hope in the quest to find a cure. It is still a very new treatment but the possibilities are endless when it comes to fighting cancer in this way. Some types of gene therapy aim to block, repair or replace abnormal genes in cancer cells so that the cells return to their normal state. Other gene therapy methods work on changing the state of other genes within cancerous cells so that the cells die off or become more sensitive to cancer treatments such as chemotherapy. There are many approaches being explored in fighting cancer with gene therapy, these include:
- Replacing a missing or damaged gene with a healthy working copy of that gene
- Injecting genes into the cancer cells that make them more sensitive to treatments like chemotherapy; increasing the possibility of its success
- Injecting genes into the cancer cell that, once inside, can be activated with a poisonous substance that will kill the cell completely
- Introducing cancer cells to genes that will make the body’s immune system more able to fight the disease with its own natural defences
- Introducing genes to healthy cells that will make them resistant to the side effects of invasive cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiotherapy. If normal cells are protected against these treatments then higher doses can potentially be given; again increasing the possibility of success.
The treatment method is still very much in the research stages and as yet it is not fully understood. Clinical trials have proved hopeful due to the fact that very few side effects have been noted and this is encouraging for the future. The next major step that researchers will take is finding the safest and most effective way of getting a new gene inside the specific cell within the body and again clinical trials have proven that this is not impossible.
Gene therapy treatment is currently only used in clinical trials and is still in need of a lot of research before it can be effective in the fight against cancer; but with the progress it has already made we can have a reasonable amount of faith in the fact that one day this treatment will be the success that for now we can only imagine.
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