Gene Therapy and Gene Editing for Cancer Therapeutics

History Of Gene Therapy

The tradition of cancer therapy goes back to the 18th century, when surgery was the main treatment for early cancer stages, and patients experienced regular recurrences (DeVita et al., 2012). The patients were treated with herbal remedies, castor oil, or arsenic until the disease spread. Radiation therapy was invented in 1895, which brought few cures (Curie and Curie, 1898). Many cases of spontaneous cancer regression after bacterial infection have been documented at that time (Lage, 2013). Following an erysipelas infection, a patient with soft tissue sarcoma went into remission in 1868 but this relapse lasted only a short time Nitrogen mustard was used in the treatment of lymphoma patients in 1943, and folic acid antagonists in childhood leukaemia contributed to temporary remission in 1948 (Goodman et al., 1946; Faber and Diamond, 1948; Hemminiki and Hemminki,2013). Chemotherapy care for cancer has also been making dramatic strides (DeVita, 2012).

In animal models, too, and subsequently in humans in 1956, viruses were found to be effective in regulating malignancies. Especially adenoviruses were studied more intensively in humans, with the subsequent development of gene therapy (Kelly and Russell, 2007; Atasheva et al., 2019; Atasheva S & Shayakhmetov DM et al., 2016). In 1987, immunotherapy was implemented in the treatment of lymphoma patients with subsequent FDA approval of the rituximab antibodies (1997) (Maloney et al., 1997).