If CRISPR allows to target specific genes, and cancer occurs when cell’s DNA changes to multiply uncontrollably and refuse the immune system’s orders to die, why can’t we just use CRISPR to solve most of the cancers?

Question

I guess there could be many genes that affect the “grow uncontrollably” part or the “refuse to die” part, but can’t we just target all of them?

In: Biology

Answer 1

You can and there’s lots of research trying exactly this. Two problems though, it has very low in-vivo efficiency, so getting the plasmid to the cells is hard. And basically if you don’t kill a vast majority of cancer cells they will come back, so that’s a fundamental problem that needs to be solved. The other issue is the off-target rate. Something like 60% have at least one off-target splice and can have up to three off target splices. This can obviously be fatal to cells or exacerbate cancer.