Cold sore virus 'treats skin cancer'

[HAL9000]

The modified herpes virus is harmless to normal cells but when injected into tumours it replicates and releases substances to help fight the cancer.

Is this the solution or will gene therapy be the ultimate solution in the future? (i.e. correct the faulty genetic code)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-32881552

 

[coley]

Is this the solution or will gene therapy be the ultimate solution in the future? (i.e. correct the faulty genetic code)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-32881552

Read this a few weeks ago and though 'wow'
However a couple of days later it had been buried by a similar 'breakthrough 'only the 'herpes' connection had been 'buried' and the cost of the new treatment had achieved astronomical costs?

 

[8ball]

'Treats' has a wide semantic range.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Is this the solution or will gene therapy be the ultimate solution in the future? (i.e. correct the faulty genetic code)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-32881552

It makes it could be useful, given viruses are well known cancer causing agents in the first place so are well equipped to work with the immune system to fight cancerous cells if they're tweaked. But it is a complex area - as is gene therapy, I think a young bloke died after an attempt at that a few years back due to an unpredicted reaction.

I wonder whether gene therapy will ever be possible because there are often multiple genes involved in a given condition, and those genes may affect other things too so correcting them might result in unforeseen consequences.