Therapeutic Cancer cure being tested on Humans
A new cure for the most common skin cancer, melanoma, is being tested on people. The usual technique to get rid of cancerous cells is to extract and then destroy them. However this new cure uses a disk-shaped biodegradable sponge which programmes white blood cells to kill the mutated ones. If this cure does work it could save many lives. Melanoma is the 18th most common cause of cancer deaths; in 2011 it killed 2,209 people in the UK alone.
Melanoma is a skin cancer that’s caused by UV radiation from sunlight. It is generally started from a young age and comes into effect in adulthood. It has been seen commonly in people who go in tanning beds frequently.
It has many pros, the most obvious being that it saves lives but the cure could also lead to new way of thinking. Even if it doesn’t work it could lead to other people improving it and transforming the traditional cures. The normal way is to grow new cells in labs and just simply replace the mutated cells. However using this sponge it is much less expensive and saves more time because it starts working immediately.
However if this cure doesn’t work it could cause more problems, for example the white blood cells could get infected by the cancer cells and then spread it round the body. Or after the cells have killed the cancerous cells they may not function like normal afterwards, (e.g. killing more cells, the white blood cells die themselves or they just