Miss Directed. Weight Loss

PREVENTING CANCER, SURVIVING CANCER: HOPE FOR THE FUTURE – BONE-MARROW TRANSPLANTS AND GENE THERAPYThe trouble with current drug therapy for cancer is that these potent drugs cannot be given in unlimited doses — which, theoretically, could kill off all tumours — because they destroy not only cancerous cells but also normal cells, especially blood-manufacturing cells in the bone marrow.A possible answer to this hurdle is the bone-marrow transplant. In this procedure, bone-marrow cells are temporarily removed and frozen. After drugs in high doses are used to kill cancer cells, the bone-marrow cells are replaced.Human trials, using the procedure for women with advanced breast cancer, have shown promising results in the U.S. But the transplant is expensive, involves a long hospital stay, and carries an unacceptable mortality rate of 15 per cent.Gene therapy is moving from the research lab to the clinic, and it promises new ways to prevent — and treat — cancer in the future.Several plants — among them, the tobacco plant, chief engineer of lung cancer — are being genetically engineered to produce medical treatments for cancer. Scientists insert the human gene (for, say, a cancer of the female reproductive tract) into the plant, thereby stimulating it to produce quantities of antibodies to the cancer. These antibodies, numbering a million or more, are then harvested for potential use as anti-cancer drugs in humans. Other approaches in gene therapy include inserting normal genes to correct abnormal ones; and drugs that combat the effects of abnormal genes.*73\332\2*