Antisense Cancer Therapy: Do Antisense Oligonucleotides Hold Promise as a Cure for Cancer?

Cancer is a dreadful disease causing a major percentage of deaths all over the world. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States, trailing cardiovascular disease. According to National Cancer Institute statistics, over half a million deaths and a million and half new cases are predicted in the year 2017 [1]. The human body is composed of trillions of cells, and they perform specific functions with the aid of proteins. Genes impact the production of these proteins, and an error contained in these genes can yield aberrant versions of these proteins. In some cases, this can result in cancer. A newly diagnosed patient is often concerned for the following reasons: 1) they are afraid of cancer treatments being costly, 2) cancer survival rates are sometimes low and chances of reoccurrence of some cancers are high, and 3) the false paradigm that cancer is incurable.