By admin AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center Breast Cancer Dr. Dalal Akoury Heavy Metal Toxicit Integrative Cancer Treatment August 14, 2014

Gene Therapy Is an Effective Cancer Treatment Alternative

Cancer has continued to threaten the very existence of the human race. Being a disease with numerous causes, it has become so hard to evade it completely. This has led to doctors trying to find the best ways of curbing it or better yet do away with it completely. Researchers have given foundations upon which these alternative cancer treatments can be based. The researchers have even studied and known the cancer cell survival mechanisms and this has led to emergency of very many alternatives that all affect the cancer cell survival in a way. Just like farmers know-the best way to do away with a weed is to uproot it completely as it will not grow again lest another seed is planted. The best way to treat cancer is to find a way of doing away with it from the roots. Unfortunately most of the cancer treatments that our loved ones are subjected to are only focused on killing the cancer cell and reducing the severity of the symptoms. This is why there are cases of repeated chemotherapies that instead of helping in killing the cancerous cells only make the cancerous cells more resistant to the drugs. Our environments expose us to myriads of carcinogens that affect the DNA make up of our body cells. There are very dangerous heavy metals that will make us prone to cancer when we interact with them consistently and this is a problem that has been facing industrial workers over the years. Upon intrusion into the body they are likely to affect our DNA make up resulting in gene mutation which is synonymous to cancer. Genes play an important role in cancer treatment and so therapies that target the gene may go a long way in healing the cancer patients, that is Gene Therap

Changes that take place in a gene are most likely to cause cancer .these changes that take place in a gene that increases cancer risk may happen due to exposure to environmental carcinogens like smoking tobacco and other potential gene mutants that emanate from the surrounding. However a person may inherit faulty genes from the parents making him have a higher risk of getting cancer. A person may inherit faulty genes from the parent but if he adopts a healthy lifestyle and evade all the potential gene mutants then he may not get the disease.

What is gene therapy?

Cancer being caused by gene mutations it is better to have a way of treating the cancer by repairing the faulty genes or better yet replacing them with functional genes so that the routine gene functions are revived. Gene therapy is a way of repairing genetic problems. This can be achieved by adding a functional copy of the defective gene. When a functional copy of a faulty gene is added, the tissues and organs that might have been affected by the gene mutations will begin to function in the right way. The gene therapy works better because unlike other cancer treatments that only treat the symptoms it goes deeper correcting all the genetic problems.

In cancer treatment most commonly, gene therapy uses a vector, typically a virus, to deliver a gene to the mutated cells where it’s needed to enable proper functions of the cell. Once its inside, the cell’s gene-reading machinery uses the information in the gene to build RNA and protein molecules. The proteins (or RNA) can then carry out their job in the cells. When the normal functioning of the genes is achieved the cancer cell duplication is inhibited and this is a better strategy in cancer treatment.

Scientists are still developing several gene-therapies that will be very helpful in cancer treatment. One of the best therapies so far discovered is the use of a modified version of herpes simplex 1 virus. Herpes simplex 1 virus is known to cause cold sores yet it has been found to have the ability to effectively fight cancer especially the cancer of the skin (melanoma) that has spread in the body.

To make the use of herpes simplex 1 virus safer, the doctors will modify the virus in such a way that it will not cause the cold sores that it is known for. This treatment is referred to T- VEC. This treatment is also safer than other conventional cancer treatments as it does not affect the healthy body cells but is very effective in destroying the cancer cells. It stimulates the immune system enabling it to spot the cancer cells present in the body and fighting them. When the virus is injected into the tumor it produces more of itself by replication inside the tumor until they burst thereby producing even more of them that can infect many more cancer cells.

In a trial to show the effectiveness of the gene therapy, 59 patients suffering from the cancer of the blood had their immune systems cells removed and treated with a virus that genetically altered their genetic structure in order to spot the proteins that covers the surfaces of the cancer cells. The immune cells were then returned into the patient’s body. More than half of the patients experienced complete remission giving proof to the strength of the gene therapy in cancer treatment.

Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) is an experienced integrative cancer doctor that has helped many cancer patients in their fight against the disease. She has worked hard not only in treating the disease but also in availing informational support to cancer patients at Awaremed which has become a place called home for many cancer patients. Call on her now and get help on cancer.