Cancer awareness

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Unfortunately one of the most deadly diseases today is cancer. Everyone knows or has a relative that was diagnosed with cancer. Cancer as such is an abnormal growth of cells within the body. There exist different types of cancer such as breast, skin, lung, colon, prostate and lymphoma. When a person is diagnosed with cancer, treatment usually involves chemotherapy, radiation/or surgery. More information on cancer can be found at WebMD.

Another treatment that is gaining momentum in being officially recognized by the Food And Drug Administration – FDA is the engineered T-cells. According to tcells.org T-cells are a type of white blood cell that circulate around our bodies, scanning for cellular abnormalities and infections. Through advancements in technology engineers found a way of re-configuring these T-cells to see cancerous cells as a threat and attack them to destroy them. One successful and interesting example can be found at www.technologyreview.com where a boy named Milton Wright was successfully treated by T-cells re-engineering for the third cancer that he experienced.

Figure 1: A bioreactor bag holds a leukemia patient’s T cells. The cells have been genetically modified to fight cancer. A new receptor has been added. (https://www.technologyreview.com/s/538441/biotechs-coming-cancer-cure/)

Research, tools, and resources required for finding a sound cure for cancer cost a lot of money. Taking the T-cells re-engineering treatment as an example, preparing a dose of T cells can range from $50,000 to $75,000. One very good Non-profit organization that is helping raise such funds is the ‘Stand Up To Cancer’. This initiative raises funds to create a collaborative environment for researches so that a cure can be found quicker to save millions of lives. One can find a lot of information on their website and social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter. One can also easily donate money through the site where millions of people would eventually benefit through the research and treatments developed.