Cell and Gene Therapy

Cellular and Technological Breakthroughs in Cancer

Cancer is a process where the cells grow aberrantly and this growth of cancer cells results in damage of normal tissues, causing loss of function and often pain. The cancer therapeutic drugs are those drugs that block the growth and spread of cancer by interfering with specific molecules (molecular targets) that are involved in the growth, progression and spread of cancer. Moreover, gene therapy approaches may be designed to directly kill tumor cells using tumor killing viruses, or through the introduction of genes termed as suicide genes into the tumor cells. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved many cancer therapies in order to treat specific types of cancers. To develop targeted therapies it requires the identification of good targets that is, those targets that play a key role in cancer cell growth and survival.  One way to identify potential targets is to compare the amounts of individual proteins in cancer cells with those present in normal cells. Gene silencing has also been designed to inhibit the expression of specific genes which are activated or over expressed in cancer cells and can drive tumor growth, blood vessel formation and allow resistance for chemotherapy.