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Closing
in on Cancer
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Judah
Folkman (right) and Michael O'Reilly discovered a natural
protein that cuts off blood supply to shrink cancer tumors. |
"Vectors" are the means by which genetic engineers insert
the desired genes into the target DNA. Much work in gene therapy
has involved putting the copies of the healthy gene inside
of viruses, and then exploiting the natural ability of these
viruses to "infect" target cells with new sections of DNA.
While this process has worked well in the lab, virus vectors,
as well as numerous other approaches, have so far been useless
for treating chronic genetic disorders in humans,
"We
need to have lifelong gene expression and wide spread gene
expression to achieve that," says Isner. "It has not yet been
demonstrated that this is possible to do with current vectors."
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Meanwhile, renowned cancer researcher Dr. Judah Folkman
was honing the hypothesis he'd been working on for most
of his life.
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Meanwhile,
however, renowned cancer researcher Dr. Judah Folkman of Harvard
Medical School was honing the hypothesis he'd been working on
for most of his life. Folkman was certainly not the first physician
to note the increased vascularization around malignant tumors,
but he was the first to propose that the cancer cells themselves-
that is, something in the tumor's DNA- caused the excess growth
of blood vessels. Folkman has been seeking ways to prevent this
vascularization- called angiogenesis- since the 1970's. Gene
therapy could be one very effective means of prevention.
Cancer
is fundamentally a genetic disease, either inherited or acquired
by exposure to carcinogens like UV light and nicotine, that
occurs when the genes regulating cell growth and division
suddenly go haywire. Fixing or replacing the faulty genes
would stop tumor growth in its tracks. It would mean the long
sought after cure for cancer.
While gene therapy as treatment for cancer may still be a
long way off, Folkman's research gave Tufts cardiologist Dr.
Jeffrey Isner yet another idea for how gene therapy could
cure chronic diseases. 
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Photo: Mary Lee/Harvard Gazette
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