BREAST cancer has a new enemy in the shape of combinations of genes that
persuade tumour cells to commit suicide, leaving healthy cells untouched. If
this kind of gene therapy is effective, it could be used to destroy other types
of cancer, too.
Nicholas Lemoine and his colleagues at Hammersmith Hospital, London,
announced their new approach at a British Endocrine Societies meeting in
Birmingham this week. Their technique exploits changes that make tumour cells
different from healthy counterparts. They inject “suicide genes” that are turned
on only in cancer cells. The genes code for enzymes that convert harmless drugs
into…
