CRISPR gene editing & IMMUNOTHERAPY: Faster path to cures

Thank you kayb!

Perhaps ImmunoOncology (IO) is a better word to use.

It's only in the last ~5/10 years that science has finally been able to get good results from IO (in other cancers). The decade-long $3 billion international human genome effort which concluded in 2001 helped with breakthroughs.

Historically, breast cancer has been considered immunologically silent and lags behind other cancers where durable remissions are being achieved by patients - when by traditional standards - they shouldn't be alive (Melanoma, Leukemia, GBM [brain cancer], Multiple Myeloma, etc). Remember the 60 Minutes episode, HBO/Vice TV special, PBS' Emperor of All Maladies documentary (all covered in this thread, here). They all highlighted the recent IO success stories.

The paradigm shift has begun. It's time to embrace it and spread the word. Everyone here should be asking their Oncologist (MO) about ImmunoOncology. Naturally, for the majority, the answer will be "we're not there yet". But, if MO's hear it enough times, the message will sink in and accelerate the field.

The annual SABCS wrapped up this weekend. Despite lots of promising news, it's apparent we need better therapies that measure overall survival (OS) in "Years" and not "Months".

With the help of CRISPR and other advances, IO might be a solution.

The results are in. Scientific breakthrough of the year is CRISPR!
Science Magazine Selects CRISPR Genome-Editing Tool as 2015 Breakthrough of the Year

Making the cut

Interesting article, but how does CRISPR deliver the proper changes to all cells?

That's something that has confused me about CRISPR and its therapeutic use in cancer.
The average human adult has 37 trillion cells. Each of those cells contains our DNA.
Within our DNA, CRISPR could theoretically fix those with the BRCA gene mutation (or any mutated gene), thus making it function properly.
However, how do you fix all 37 trillion cells that contain this DNA error? Would you need to?

The only example I can find of CRISPR gene editing curing cancer is the UK-based story of the terminal childhood leukemia patient from late last year, here. They used an older gene editing technique called TALENs (instead of CRISPR) to put the child into remission. This was a monumental breakthrough that probably has many cancer researchers rethinking their approaches.
CRISPR is cheaper, faster and more precise than this old TALEN technique.

Anyway, CRISPR seems to have greatest potential in "Adoptive Cell Therapy" Immunotherapy, the process where cells are removed from a patient, edited, grown and then put back into the patient with the hope that the bad cells will be eradicated by the newly modified good cells (something along those lines). I think this how the popular Immunotherapy technique called "CAR-T" (chimeric antigen receptor T cells) works. Although, CAR-T has only been successful in hematological malignancies (blood disorders). To my knowledge, CAR-T has not worked in solid tumors like breast cancer, yet.

If there are any experts that can clarify errors in my comment, please do!!!