Gene Therapy The technique of inserting genes into tumor cells or into the cells of the immune system has made headlines in the past few years. The promise of this approach is that tumor vaccines can be made more potent by attracting more T cells and macrophages to the site of injection and by stimulating them more strongly when they arrive.
T cells, which have a long lifespan in the body, can also carry genes around the body for a long time. If the genes make the T cells better able to recognize tumor antigens or to multiply more rapidly, the immune response can be augmented for a long period.
In colon cancer, and probably in other cancers, an abnormal (transformed or mutated) gene or the absence (deletion) of a gene causes the cancer to develop. Replacing defective or absent genes with properly working ones in susceptible people could prevent the disease from occurring.
Gene therapy is in its infancy. As it matures, it will influence not only immunotherapy and cancer prevention but a host of other disorders caused by abnormal genes.
