Chinese scientists have undertaken a clinical trial using the CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing tool in an attempt to treat cancer patients. The trial will include 20 patients with an aggressive gastric cancer, nasopharyngeal carcinoma and lymphoma. Jia Wei, Deputy Director of the Nanjing Clinical Cancer Institute implementing the trial, announced that the first patient to receive an injection of modified cells one week ago was doing well.
Two other clinical trials are currently underway with CRISPR including one at Szechuan University to treat lung cancer patients. The results should be published sometime this year (seeCRISPR: first patient treated in China; CRISPR and somatic gene therapy: the first human clinical trial in China). The second will start in the United States this summer. The aim is to stimulate the immune response in cancer patients (see CRISPR: A clinical trial involving somatic gene therapy is about to start in the United States).
Genome Web (28/04/2017)