GENE THERAPY a€“ APPROACHES TO TREAT CANCER

Gene therapy is a medical/surgical intervention in which functional gene is introduced or defective gene is replaced in a cell of an organism suffering from an acquired or a genetic disease so as to treat or cure a wide variety of diseases. It is a pharmaceutical therapy with DNA as a drug molecule to be targeted to a specific site. In other words, gene therapy is the correction of a disease by genetic manipulation. For successful delivery of DNA to host cells, either virus is used as a vector or DNA material is inserted directly into the cells. There are various ways to treat cancer like induction of apoptosis, blocking angiogenesis, suicidal genes, DNA vaccination etc. The medical potential is promising, however, it is the task of society to ensure that this promising technology is used profitably and not misused.