Below is an entry of mine from the curing cancer discussion board. In class students were asked to watch a video and respond to the following questions. I enjoyed this discussion board because I learned a lot about cancer research and how future genetic testing can warn people if they are more susceptible to certain diseases.
1. Describe Dr. Mary Claire King's and Dr. Mark Skolnick's research---what is a marker? Dr. King observed that if there was hereditary relationships with cancer, then the cancer must be related to a damaged gene sequence. She turned to Dr. Botstine to help her with her research. When the two started their research, the was no prior knowledge on how to find these damaged genes. She wanted to show that some chromosomal bits that were inherited by those affected by breast cancer were different of those that had never been affected with cancer. The big goal is to find the difference in the DNA (or spelling differences). Dr. Skolnick was the first to turn to the Mormon church death records for the important research he planned to create. Gave them a way to throughly discover families that had a strong history of cancer. They tried to work together, however their egos clashed and they could no longer work together. Mark continued with the mormon research while Mary turned to the media for help. Mary’s research would take her 17 years to complete. It was found on chromosome 17, however the DNA bit was still unclear. Markers are inherited chromosomes that have different characteristics between different people. If a marker wasn’t shared between the families, than it could be eliminated for a possible trigger gene.
2. If you knew breast cancer ran in your family, would you get tested? Would you want to know if you carried the gene even if there wasn't a cure? Explain. My grandmother on my dad’s side died of breast cancer before i was born. Doctors believe that it was not hereditary, however I still believe that I could be at risk. 20 years ago the science was nothing where it is today, so I do want to be tested for the marker gene. Even if there wasn’t a cure through medicine, you could make the efforts through holistic medicines (like eating healthy, meditation, no smoking or drinking, etc.) to at least prevent the severity of the cancer.
3. Describe how Dr. Brian Druker's Gleevac drug works to cure Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. He found that the common practices of treating cancer, like chemotherapy, were cruel. This inspired his research. He picked CML due to the fact that the cause was very clear. His first patient was Bud, he began to take drugs that would stop the damaged cell (misshaped active site) from going out of control. This particular drug inhibited the damaged active site, and stopped the DNA from further damaging the cell and the body. it demonstrates that if you know how the DNA is damaged, you can cure any kind of cancer.
4. Describe how new imaging techniques shows the genetic mechanisms of cancer and how new drugs might target aberrant sections of DNA. Microarray- slide that has multiple genes that can be aligned with a sample to test for the presence of an active gene (uses mRNA production) It now takes them 5 minutes to be able to do the same thing that took them 5 years to do, they can also compare thousands of cancers at once, not just one
5. What other questions do you have? What does the future hold for cancer? Will it become extinct? or will people still suffer from it? How much do these drugs cost for the patients? Should cancer be treated with more than one way? (i.e. pills and chemo or hollistic and gene therapy)