Very quickly, why is trying to augment DNA repair itself in our rapidly-dividing cells not being pursued so much? It seems like most of the focus is on either (1) trying to somehow intricately negate the various ways in which the cell cycle is commonly dysregulated, which is after the damage to the tumor suppressor gene(s) or oncogene(s) has already been done; or by (2) trying to broadly kill the cancer in novel, more specified ways, one of which is by genetically modifying cultured immune cells to target the cancer.
But cancer incidence increases rapidly (by some high order polynomial of age, it appears), and it seems that rather than fight each individual cancer, giving humans superior DNA repair proteins would be the simplest solution, if it were possible.
DNa repair is very complicated. But maybe there is hope that we could evolve better DNA repair proteins (like through directed evolution), or get some hints from other organisms that are highly resistant to DNA damage.
And if those proteins could be created, then hopefully through the various methods of gene therapy, which seem to be progressing quite fast, we could get many of our cells to express those proteins.
how is this approach to the problem of cancer impractical?
how come I haven't heard much about this (hypothetical) approach to cancer
Started by
enfield
, Jan 03 2012 06:16 AM
cancer
2 replies to this topic
#1
Posted 03 January 2012 - 06:16 AM
#2
Posted 05 January 2012 - 06:39 AM
Actually, it's not hypothetical..
Recently Cancer Council in Australia announced findings that vitamin B3 was a preventative for skin cancer.
B6 was recently mentioned for lung and colorectal cancer prevention. Too much B6 leads to an effective deficiency of B1,2,3...
B9 / folate at correct doses also prevents some carcinogenesis, too much and it leads to a B12 deficiency.
B12 prevents some carcinogenesis.
B vitamins, in general, are heavily involved in the DNA methylation and repair process.
You can also uprate the DNA repair process by ingesting higher amounts of certain nucleosides, but this would be a bad idea without sufficient B vitamins to support the process - could lead to genotoxicity.
Recently Cancer Council in Australia announced findings that vitamin B3 was a preventative for skin cancer.
B6 was recently mentioned for lung and colorectal cancer prevention. Too much B6 leads to an effective deficiency of B1,2,3...
B9 / folate at correct doses also prevents some carcinogenesis, too much and it leads to a B12 deficiency.
B12 prevents some carcinogenesis.
B vitamins, in general, are heavily involved in the DNA methylation and repair process.
You can also uprate the DNA repair process by ingesting higher amounts of certain nucleosides, but this would be a bad idea without sufficient B vitamins to support the process - could lead to genotoxicity.
#3
Posted 05 January 2012 - 07:54 AM
enfield, do You have access to statistical data, that shows, that the cancer incidence increases?
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