DNA sequencing still a work-in-process, latest patients were Steve Jobs and Christopher Hitchens – Part 2

This new technology takes print of normal body’s DNA sequence and matches it with the DNA of a cancer cell. The difference is then catered with different drugs and medication to stop or slow down the growth.

This way the growth of the tumour can be slowed down and lifetime can be prolonged. However, this new technology is still a work-in-process and there are not many cases that have benefited from it. Jobs and Hitchens were the two, who had a good chance in
the start to become the first beneficiaries of it.

Hitchens was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in June 2010. He had a drinking and smoking problem from 2003 which eventually caused cancer in his esophagus, a part in the throat that allows the food to pass from pharynx to the stomach.

Hitchens did not have the same belief in DNA sequencing treatment as Jobs, however; he was hopeful. Even with extensive tests and drugs he could not elude his ailment. One drug had actually slowed one genome of his cancer but rest was so drastically erupting
that it eventually became untreatable.

Many companies are now trying to indulge into this miraculous technology and make it more inexpensive. Currently, the cost on sequencing of a single full genome is in the neighbourhood of $5000. However, with a number of companies probing into this new tech,
the cost is likely to drop dramatically in the next three or four years.

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Posted by Usman Khalid on Dec 17 2011. Filed under Sci-Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry