FDA on cusp of approving cancer-killing gene therapy

[_lost_username_]

 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is close to approving its first gene therapy treatment for cancer. This gene therapy targets cancer by turning the bodies own cells into anti-cancer weapons.

 

Here’s a dumbed-down explanation from NPR:

 

The new treatment is known as CAR-T cell immunotherapy. It works by removing key immune system cells known as T cells from the patient so scientists can genetically modify them to seek out and attack only cancer cells. That’s why some scientists refer to this as a “living drug.”

 

Doctors then infuse millions of the genetically modified T cells back into the patient’s body so they can try to obliterate the cancer cells and hopefully leave healthy tissue unscathed.

 

Now, there are some risks. The biggest being  “cytokine release syndrome,” in which the immune system attacks vital organs. Unlike treatments in the past, no patients have died from the new therapy. That means that while the treatment may make you sick, you’re probably still going to survive it more so than the cancer.

 

Of course, much like vaccines, there are people who hear “gene” and freak out. But, they’re becoming a minority as knowledge of how genetics works becomes more commonplace.

 

CANCER MOONSHOT

 

Although it was well underway beforehand, this new treatment brings to mind former Vice President Joe Biden’s “Cancer Moonshot.”

 

The “Cancer Moonshot” and Biden’s involvement originates with President Barack Obama’s 2016 State of the Union Address. Obama called on Biden to lead a new, national Cancer Moonshot focused on making a decade of progress in preventing, diagnosing, and treating cancer in 5 years, ultimately striving to end cancer as we know it.

 

This is something near and dear to Biden’s heart, as he lost his own son to brain cancer in 2015

 

A Presidential Memorandum established the Cancer Moonshot Task Force, which was directed to unite the Federal government in achieving the Moonshot’s mission through a focused effort to leverage Federal investments, targeted incentives, private sector efforts, and patient initiatives, among other mechanisms.

 

The Moonshot’s seeks to create a near future where:

 

• all segments of society have access to prevention strategies, diagnostics, and treatments that save lives;
  
• there are cures for some forms of cancer and others have been turned into chronic conditions that do not diminish the quality or length of life;
  
• cancer researchers and doctors are collaboratively engaged in a system that accelerates knowledge and breakthroughs; and
  
• patients and health care professionals are partners, and patients can easily access and control their health information to use as they wish, including to further biomedical research.

 

Most of us know someone that has had or has died from cancer. Both the new CAR-T immunotherapy treatment and Moonshot offer hope. Hope that cancer will go from complicating or destroying life, to being in the same vein as diabetes or allergies. That is, something that you may have to deal with your entire life, but it’s not going to kill you.

 

https://zoombubba.com/blog/2017/07/14/panel-oks-cancer-killing-gene-therapy/

 

[mochi]

If it goes wrong tho it's the kind of thing that would turn a person into grey goo

or a Cronenberg

[naraku360]

This sounds too good. May I suggest a markedly worse solution? :fap: