Gene-Editing Tool Reverses Cancer Resistance to Chemotherapy

A team of researchers at the Gene Editing Institute in Newark, Delaware, has successfully treated chemotherapy-resistant lung cancer cells with the CRISPR gene-editing technique. The study was published Dec. 21, 2018, in Molecular Therapy Oncolytics. In addition to making drug-resistant lung cancer cells treatable with chemotherapy, the approach offers the potential to improve quality of life for cancer patients. “In the broader sense, such an approach would ultimately lead to a reduced level of chemotherapy required to produce the same tumor-killing activity, leading to an improvement in the quality of life of a cancer patient,” the authors wrote. Although lung cancer was the focus of the study, the approach may also offer a new treatment avenue for mesothelioma. Many of the drugs currently in clinical trials for treating mesothelioma were studied first as lung cancer therapies. Chemotherapy Resistance Is Common Researchers studying thousands of patient biopsies found high rates of chemotherapy resistance in lung cancer tumors. More than two-thirds of lung cancers are resistant to carboplatin. For example, resistance to cisplatin — a common mesothelioma treatment — is present in 63 percent of samples. Scientists have searched for ways to address chemotherapy resistance for years. Now they have identified a potential solution. Targeting the Tumor, Not the Person A large portion of CRISPR research has focused on treating genetic diseases by altering human genes. This...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Source Type: news