Question: Have you ever succeeded in finding the way to change the DNA of your cancer patients?

Natalia Brodaczewska answered on 16 Mar 2020:

That’s an interesting question. At the moment, we are not allowed to change human DNA as part of a normal clinical practice as there are many ethical issues with doing so. It can be a dangerous thing to do because we don’t know enough about the risks and long-term consequences of making changes to somebody’s DNA. So a lot of testing needs to be done before we can start editing genes for our patients. But scientists are already working on it. We have already found a way to change DNA in the lab – a very hot topic in science at the moment is something called CRISPR technology which allows us to edit DNA more easily and at a lower cost than before. Lab experiments have showed that this technology has potential to help us treat some diseases and clinical trials involving patients are already happening around the world. For example, in some patients with blood cancers or other blood disorders such as sickle cell disease, one small change in the DNA causes the disease. If we could remove somebody’s blood or bone marrow cells, then use CRISPR to fix that one mistake in the DNA and then put the cells back into patient’s body, there’s a good chance that we could cure their disease this way. But for now we are still only at a testing stage so we need to wait and see how well this method works and if there are any dangers to the patient when we do that. Fingers crossed in future we’ll be able to treat many difficult illnesses because of this!