T-REX #3

Note to self...careful what you write

Yesterday I said my experiences were almost exclusively female cancers and last night I found out (via Facebook - how else) that a male friend starts his treatment tomorrow

So what annoys me when cancer is discussed well for starters - headlines like this

CANCER sufferers were last night given fresh hope after experts hailed a breakthrough in the search for a new cure.

READ THE ARTICLE and you find

Dr Sadelain expects it to be tested on humans and developed as a treatment by 2020.

So if you have cancer in 2013 this doesn't seem like much of a hope for you...

Actually what I really find difficult is that journalists always use the word -CURE - when what they mean is an effective treatment - we can't cure the common cold and I would reckon that that's a simple call compared to cancer

As for gene therapy - I did a lot of genetics as part of my degree and I was taught by Alec Jeffreys - the DNA fingerprint pioneer

As part of that we were taught to look at why the population maintains a high level of seemingly harmful genes - but which are normally only really harmful when present in a double dose

The list is long but includes sickle trait, hemophilia, cystic fibrosis - the answer is that normally the carrier must gain some advantage over the normal population

So if we look at humans at a biological level maybe some cancer genes are beneficial when we are young but lethal when we are older - so what happens if we try to breed them out or alter them with genetic engineering

If there's money to be made no doubt some one will try it....