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Having lost a sister and a son to cancer I hope for this to work. The issues are tremendous for this technique and I don't have high hopes for its use on cancer

by baldfat 10y ago

Having lost a sister and a son to cancer I hope for this to work. The issues are tremendous for this technique and I don't have high hopes for its use on cancer. I am still having high hopes on immune system techniques that helps the body to mark cancer cells and attack the cells for most cancers. CRISPR big hope is that it can change the cell to stop reproducing or stop invading other cells. Simply put cancer cells are cells that grow that don't stop AND can spread to other cells. If you get one of the two you win. HIGHLY RECCOMENDED : list to Radio Lab Famous Tumors http://www.radiolab.org/story/91713-famous-tumors/ http://www.radiolab.org/story/91713-famous-tumors/

j_jochem 10y ago
Isn't the idea with CRISPR that you patch the patient's t-cells in such a way that they are able to recognize cancer cells as diseased cells, allowing the immune system to clear them away?
- alextheparrot 10y ago
  The holy grail would be fixing commonly occurring mutations that cause the cancer, but to my knowledge the edit/correction rate is too low for this to work currently, plus the possibility of causing more cancer by bad edits. Thus, the T-cell approaches are more promising currently as it allows for direct modification of cells to fight cancer with known anti-cancer antigens, using a modified immune system.
  - rudolf0 10y ago
    Could this theoretically be used to fight all pathogen-based illnesses as well?
    - robbiep 10y ago
      Theoretically, it could be used to get a person to grow a new set of arms. But technology that doesn't exist yet is all speculation.
reasonattlm 10y ago
The SENS approach to cancer is pretty much to turn off its ability to grow in unlimited fashion. If you could compensate for the side-effects, it would be possible to delete telomerase and ALT genes from humans, which would produce cancer free humans - if cancers can't lengthen their telomeres, they die. Unfortunately, it would also produce humans would be dependent on some form of periodic telomerase therapy targeted to stem cells, or stem cell replacement, or similar. This might be a net gain in a suitably high-tech environment. A better approach would be something other than permanent removal of telomerase and ALT genes, but perhaps suppressing them globally for a while, or suppressing them in cancerous tissue only. RNAi or other methodologies are pretty reliable for this sort of thing at the present time in the general sense.
fabiandesimone 10y ago
As a parent and a brother, I'm so sorry you had to go trough that.
davesque 10y ago
Sorry to hear that. Hang in there. I lost my mom to cancer about a year ago.
- baldfat 10y ago
  > Hang in there I have learned through this that A) I depend on God B) I love life and cherish more because of the journey. SO they have made enjoy life more because they were in my life. > I lost my mom to cancer Sorry to hear that. Cancer SUCKS
  - whamlastxmas 10y ago
    I'm glad to hear you found some good from such a terrible situation.
fasteo 10y ago
So sorry, no father should see his son die.

by baldfat 10y ago

j_jochem 10y ago

Isn't the idea with CRISPR that you patch the patient's t-cells in such a way that they are able to recognize cancer cells as diseased cells, allowing the immune system to clear them away?

alextheparrot 10y ago
The holy grail would be fixing commonly occurring mutations that cause the cancer, but to my knowledge the edit/correction rate is too low for this to work currently, plus the possibility of causing more cancer by bad edits. Thus, the T-cell approaches are more promising currently as it allows for direct modification of cells to fight cancer with known anti-cancer antigens, using a modified immune system.
- rudolf0 10y ago
  Could this theoretically be used to fight all pathogen-based illnesses as well?
  - robbiep 10y ago
    Theoretically, it could be used to get a person to grow a new set of arms. But technology that doesn't exist yet is all speculation.

reasonattlm 10y ago

The SENS approach to cancer is pretty much to turn off its ability to grow in unlimited fashion. If you could compensate for the side-effects, it would be possible to delete telomerase and ALT genes from humans, which would produce cancer free humans - if cancers can't lengthen their telomeres, they die. Unfortunately, it would also produce humans would be dependent on some form of periodic telomerase therapy targeted to stem cells, or stem cell replacement, or similar. This might be a net gain in a suitably high-tech environment. A better approach would be something other than permanent removal of telomerase and ALT genes, but perhaps suppressing them globally for a while, or suppressing them in cancerous tissue only. RNAi or other methodologies are pretty reliable for this sort of thing at the present time in the general sense.

fabiandesimone 10y ago

As a parent and a brother, I'm so sorry you had to go trough that.

davesque 10y ago

Sorry to hear that. Hang in there. I lost my mom to cancer about a year ago.

baldfat 10y ago
> Hang in there I have learned through this that A) I depend on God B) I love life and cherish more because of the journey. SO they have made enjoy life more because they were in my life. > I lost my mom to cancer Sorry to hear that. Cancer SUCKS
- whamlastxmas 10y ago
  I'm glad to hear you found some good from such a terrible situation.

fasteo 10y ago

So sorry, no father should see his son die.