Cancer Treatment: waiting for a breakthrough
Five-year plan of victory over cancer
James Watson came to Russia to introduce new methods of treatment
Irina Yakutenko, " <url>"
If you take a hundred people and ask them to make lists of the most outstanding scientists of the XX century, then, most likely, the names in each of the lists will not match. However, some researchers are highly likely to be mentioned by almost all respondents. One of them would certainly be the discoverer of the structure of DNA, the inspirer and head of the Human Genome project, James Watson. To the correspondent of "Lenta.<url>" managed to interview a famous scientist.
Despite the fact that Watson's name is known to almost everyone, most people (at least in Russia) it is associated with only one scientific breakthrough – the discovery of the structure of DNA. Watson would have been an outstanding specialist even if he had really done nothing else in science, but he did some very important things. For example, he organized and completed the Human Genome project on decoding the DNA sequence of Homo sapiens.
Perhaps this idea may seem too bold to someone, but in terms of significance for humanity, the "Human Genome" is comparable to the discovery of the famous double helix. Firstly, working on decoding the human genome, researchers from different countries created and debugged new technologies for determining the DNA sequence. And secondly, having received the complete sequence in their hands, scientists were able to look at human genetics from a completely new angle. Since 2001, when the draft version of the human genome was published, sequencing technologies (DNA sequence determination) have gone far ahead, and today biologists have complete sequences of several people.
By comparing certain sections of DNA within individual genomes and between different genomes, scientists can extract a huge amount of information about how genes work and what factors influence this process. Works at this level are already moving from the category of purely fundamental to the category of purely practical, which are most directly related to medicine. Of course, to find the causes of diseases and create new drugs, it is not enough for specialists to simply have complete DNA sequences – they need a lot of other knowledge from various fields of biology. And yet, working with huge amounts of genetic material has allowed doctors and researchers to develop completely new approaches to treating people. For example, genome-wide screenings are becoming increasingly popular, with the help of which it is possible to find out a person's predisposition to certain diseases, as well as to find out whether he is a carrier of dangerous pathologies that can be transmitted to children.
In parallel with the development of full-genome research technologies, new methods of cancer therapy are rapidly developing. In recent years, scientists have found out that cancer is not just one terrible attack, but a lot of completely dissimilar diseases that require an almost individual approach to treatment. Each of these types of cancer is characterized by "its" mutations, which become targets for new drugs. Using these effective means to fight a very similar cancer, differing only in the absence of a single mutation, will have absolutely no effect.
The reader may ask, what does Watson have to do with finding new cancer treatments? The most immediate thing is that for more than 40 years, the scientist has been contributing in every possible way to cancer research in the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, an institute that Watson led until recently. Now he continues to study cancer topics in his laboratory at the same institute.
Actually, the conversation of the correspondent of "Lenta.<url>" with James Watson took place in a cancer clinic – the Blokhin Russian Cancer Center (RSC), where the Nobel Laureate came to see how cancer is being fought here.
The day before visiting the Cancer Center, James Watson gave a lecture at the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University, where he talked about what simple rules allowed him to succeed ("James Watson: how to become a Nobel laureate?").
Watson walked around the center, looked into the operating rooms and laboratories and all the time tried to find out from Russian colleagues how they were looking for new remedies against one of the most deadly human diseases. After learning that research is conducted much less intensively than we would like, Watson was upset: "The most important thing that should be in science is people. People should be involved in research in all possible ways. I understand that in Russia, as well as in the USA, young people do not want to go into science because of a small salary. But in America we have the opportunity to attract scientists from other countries, but in Russia it will not work.”
Below we present a recording of a conversation with James Watson about other problems of modern science and medicine.
Tape.ru: In recent years, several drugs have appeared that fight cancer in a targeted way – that is, they work only for those cancers in which certain mutations occur. For example, there have recently been reports about the development of such a tool to combat melanoma. Could you tell us more about these drugs?
Such drugs – which work only if there is a certain mutation in cancer cells – exist not only for melanoma. Some mutations occur in several types of cancer – in fact, they make the cell cancerous. And now drugs have already been created that target just these mutations. But there is one problem with all these medicines – they work very briefly. After a year or so, new mutations appear in cancer cells, and they become insensitive to the drug. And now scientists are just trying to figure out the nature of such resistance of cancer cells.
Tape.RU: And what are the successes?
Today, experts have understood why some types of lung cancer are not treatable. They have developed a drug that should fight this cancer, and are now undergoing clinical trials. So far, this medicine is able to restrain the development of cancer for two years. Now scientists are trying to make it work for five years. In general, the fight against cancer is a very promising area of research.
About another promising approach to the cure of cancer to the correspondent of "Lenta.<url>" was told by Carol Greider, the 2009 Nobel Laureate in Physiology and Medicine. She and two other specialists received the prize for their work on the study of telomeres – special structures that prevent the degradation of chromosomes. In cancer cells, telomeres "work" too well and do not allow these cells to die (you can read more about telomeres here). Grader said that clinical trials of an anti-cancer drug that prevents abnormal stability of telomeres are already underway.
Tape.ru: And in which of the fields of biology can we expect a new revolution – comparable to the one that occurred in the 50s of the last century after the discovery of the structure of DNA?
In my opinion, the revolution will happen in the study of cancer. Here we can expect breakthrough results in the next five years. It is possible that scientists will finally be able to understand how to fight this disease. So young professionals should pay attention to this area.
Tape.ru: And if you had the opportunity to determine the choice of the Nobel Committee, for which recent research would you award the prize?
Well, I still don't represent the Nobel Committee, but if I could... I would probably give the prize for any work on the study of human genetics. More specifically, to those specialists who are looking for – and finding – the genetic causes of diseases. The most noticeable progress in recent years has been in the treatment of those diseases that lead to the birth of children with intellectual disabilities, such as autism. (Watson's son suffers from autism, and the scientist has been researching this disease for many years – approx. <url>). If earlier we found genetic changes in two percent of patients, now - in twenty. I think that in this area – and in general in the field of brain diseases – we can expect very rapid development.
Tape.ru: It is believed that the genomic approach to the treatment of diseases will become publicly available when researchers create technologies that allow sequencing the human genome for a thousand dollars. When do you think this will happen?
I think it will happen in about three years. And, by the way, this issue is very relevant for Russia – so far, for example, it is completely unclear how it will be possible to introduce a genomic approach to treatment into the Russian healthcare system. I think this was one of the reasons that I was invited here – if I say how important it is to change the approach to medicine, then my call can be heard.
Now it is possible to treat people in a completely new way - for example, it is possible to conduct genetic screening of parents to find out if they are carriers of dangerous diseases, well, for example, cystic fibrosis. If the answer is positive, then doctors should monitor the process of conception – such a measure will prevent the birth of sick children. At the same time, screening costs only $ 400. As you can see, it is quite inexpensive, but in order to extend this practice to the whole country, political will is needed. Someone has to make this decision.
For example, in America they are afraid of genetics – for political reasons. American scientists have become timid, they are afraid of offending someone (here we can recall Watson's statement that representatives of the Negroid race are stupider than white people, which cost him the position of head of Cold Spring Harbor - approx. <url>.) In order to develop, humanity needs people who could put pressure on politicians and turn the situation around.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru17.06.2010