Gene Therapy for Mesothelioma

An exciting new treatment that has given hope to mesothelioma victims is called gene therapy. Gene therapy attempts to decipher why proteins within certain cells cause them to be resilient to cancer while some cells do not. A while back it was believed that genes were complete upon birth, and that they couldn’t affect conditions afflicted during life. This however, turned out to not be the case. Since then we have learned that smoking, sunlight and certain foods can all affect our DNA and make changes to our genetic code. These new insights provided by these conditions have allowed doctors to view many conditions like malignant mesothelioma in a new light.

There are many factors that contribute to Mesothelioma. Asbestos exposure is the primary contributing factor, but genetic mutations in individuals also worsen it. Gene therapy is a revolution in mesothelioma treatment because it replaces cancer-causing genes with genes that are medically constructed to die when exposed to cancerous growth. These ‘suicide genes’ are a possible way to slow and possibly stop the rapid replication of cancerous cells. Studies are also starting to begin experimenting with replacing cancer generating genes with genes susceptible to certain drugs. This would allow the cancer to be potentially eliminated with few side effects.

Gene therapy treatment is still in its beginning stages and is not yet 100% safe. However, this desperate situation suffered by mesothelioma victims, sometimes calls for various experimental treatments. Any hope for surviving mesothelioma outweighs many of the dangers involved.

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