Monday, 9 December 2013

Gene Therapy for the Treatment of Cancer

Hematological malignancy- a term specified to a set of cancers that hit and affects the bone marrow, lymph nodes and blood. Generally, the patients who suffer from Lymphomas, Myelomas and Leukemia are not able to discover a permanent treatment for their illness and do not survive the condition.
However, the latest advancements prove that gene therapy can be an exceptional development for the cure of various types of blood cancers. Researchers are positive about the usage of gene therapy in which the blood cells can actually be used to attack the cancerous cells. The testing’s, up till now have given promising outcomes and the patients does not show any signs and symptoms of cancer, after this medical treatment. This is genuinely accurate even for the myeloma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia and lymphocytic leukemia patients who were taking regular chemotherapies for years:
“Cancer was so advanced in 8-year-old Emily Whitehead of Philipsburg, Pa., that doctors said her major organs would fail within days. She was the first child given the gene therapy and shows no sign of cancer today, nearly two years later.”
In this treatment, the doctors are actually sorting out the white blood cells from the blood in massive quantities. These cells are then introduced in a lab to a particular gene targeting cancer, and then are induced back in the patient’s blood over a period of three days. This way, cancer is treated successfully and in a more productive method than chemotherapies, bone marrow transplants or stem cell.
Current Gene Therapy is a conventional, bi-monthly peer-reviewed journal from the shelves of Bentham Science Publishers. It has an impact factor rating, (5.318) and is indexed in major abstracting agencies, that includes; Scopus, EMBASE, MEDLINE/Index Medicus, and Journal Citation Reports etc. Current Gene Therapy publishes major topics concerning basic and clinical applications of gene and cell therapy. http://benthamscience.com/cgt/

The post is based on the article ‘Gene Therapy Scores Big Wins against Blood Cancers” by Marilynn Marchione.

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