Cancer Stem Cells, Immunotherapy. An Intergrated Approach to Cancer Treatment

One form of the gene for a protein called alpha-i anrrypsin much increases the risk of emphysema among smokers. The incidence of those with two copies is around one in five thousand; and half of all smokers unlucky enough to fall into that group die younger than forty, whereas the lifespan for gene carriers who do not smoke is extended by twenty years. To discover one's individual danger concentrates the mind: and in Sweden one in ten teenagers with the high-risk genotype smokes, compares to a fifth of others. To assess future health is not new. All doctors check their patients for high blood pressure and healthy women are examined for signs of breast cancer. As technology advances, signs of other cancers (such as prostate cancer, which generates antigens in the urine) can be checked long before symptoms appear. DNA will make diagnosis easier, with tests for a wide variety of diseases, either inherited or the result of mutations in body cells themselves. Once a patient or someone worried about a family problem turns up, DNA is just another weapon in the doctor's armoury ...»