By
Gianni P.
Period 4
Breast cancer is the most common cancer affecting women. Breast Cancer is a cancer that occurs in the breast. It is the #1 cancer that is caused by heredity. The concept of genetically engineering the disease is important to science because people will live longer and we will be able to save more lives. In the US, an estimated 192,370 new cases of breast cancer occurred in women in 2009 and 1,910 occurred in men. Heredity, maternal age of first childbearing, number of children, age of menopause. brca 1 and brca 2 are identified as the breast cancer gene. Genetic tests are available to screen for mutations of the brca 1 and brca 2 gene. Current treatments for breast cancer are surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, targeted therapy, and bone-directed therapy. Cancer is a disease of uncontrolled cell growth caused by exposure to carcinogens (cancer-causing), genetic defects, or viruses.
The transformation of a normal cell into a cancer cell can occur when the genetic material (DNA) of a cell changes, or mutates. Cancer is often a disease of age, with many cancers occurring after age fifty. Cancer can be inherited or caused by your actions or what environment you live in. Examples that could cause you to have cancer are: smoking, radiation, heat, etc. Many cancers are preventable. It is good to avoid smoking, overexposure to the sun, high-fat diets, etc. Breast Cancer’s cause is mostly due to heredity. Most people who have been diagnosed with breast cancer inherited the disease.
Cancer treatment consists of surgery to remove tumors and radiation to slow tumor growth. Chemotherapy, or drug therapy, is often used to treat cancers that have spread to other parts of the body. Another approach to treatment is to boost the immune system with immune-enhancing drugs or antibodies that can recognize and destroy abnormal cells. Society would accept genetic engineering on the topic of cancer because it would save lives and help our economy in many ways. People would buy this in and out of our country and would help bring in money for our economy. The costs involved in genetically researching cancer would be high but worth it in the long run. The amount of money the American Cancer Association receives in generous donations, they would be able to fund the research and hopefully find a cure. Researching genetics will help our world fight many diseases.
Benefits and Risks of the Concept -
The benefits of genetic engineering is that we would not be able to identify the specific genes that give rise to this disease and, hopefully, cure the disease. The benefits of genetic engineering with cancer could be that the engineer can possibly not only find a cure but could possibly lower the effects or to extend a person’s lifetime, being able to extend someone’s life can be helpful towards the family and to the patient. Benefits can also include lowering the amount of victims and lowering the side effects of chemotherapy. Risks involved with genetic engineering is that the number of breast cancer cases have been rising over the past years, some may blame genetic testing. Cancer may be growing because of all of the genetic tests and searches for the cure. Many don’t like to mess with anything new because it is not proven to help and that can also be another risk because it is new. Another risk is that it can be bad and something bad could happen and someone can die unexpected and nobody will ever want to have their life depend on genetic engineering, but for some it may be their last hope.
Interview Questions -
I interviewed my grandma, a breast cancer survivor, how breast cancer affected her life after chemotherapy and what her opinion was on the concept on genetic engineering was. She replied by saying that chemotherapy was horrible and made her weak. She said that everyone has some crazy reaction to chemotherapy and that hers was that it made her feet really itchy, it was similar to when someone is pregnant and that they have some weird craving or side-effect. She had no opinion on genetically engineering cancer but as long as it would save lives, she was for it.
I interviewed my neighbor, a doctor, how has the breast cancer cure advanced when it comes to genetically engineering? His Response was that the cure isn’t close but it’s certainly not far away. It has advanced over the past 15 years and, “the cure will be out sometimes in the next 15-20 years.”
While interviewing my friend, who’s mom passed away due to breast cancer, I asked him have you heard anything about genetic engineering and how it could cure the disease? Or do you think it is harmful? He said that the concept of genetically engineering the disease would be good because he wouldn’t want anyone else’s relatives to have to die because of something like cancer. He thought that anything that could save lives would be very good for our world. He also did not think that the concept is harmful.
While interviewing my mom’s friend, a teacher at Durango High School, I asked her what percent of breast cancer patients get the disease through heredity? She said that 15% of breast cancer patients get the disease from relatives and that it is relatively high compared to other cancers.
I interviewed my dad’s friend, a former teacher, that is the research hurting the search for the cure or helping it. His response was that it is helping and hurting the search. It is hurting it because many are scared to genetically engineer the disease because they think they will get other cancers from it. It is helpful because it may find the cure and save lives.
Reflection -
I believe that humans should continue to genetically research and “re-design” life because it is possible that we can find a cure for breast cancer. The benefits of genetically engineering overpower the risks in this case because the risks aren’t scientifically proven to be harmful. This is very moral and would change or future and most importantly save lives. It is not immoral because it is not scientifically proven to hurt the patients or kill them. Many people would like to fund genetic engineers because it would help our world in so many ways. It would affect my life because some of my family has and had cancer and it is possible for others in my family to get the disease.
References
Breast Cancer Risk Factors: Genetics. (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2015, from
"Cancer." UXL Encyclopedia of Science. UXL, 2001. Science in Context. Web. 19 Feb. 2015.
Database, G. (n.d.). Cancer Treatment. Retrieved February 17, 2015, from http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/scic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?failOverType=&query=&prodId=SCIC&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&display-query=&mode=view&displayGroupName=Reference&limiter=&u=las89135&currPage=&disableHighlighting=false&displayGroups=&sortBy=&source=&search_within_results=&p=SCIC&action=e&catId=&activityType=&scanId=&documentId=GALE|CV2644300214
How is breast cancer treated? (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2015, from http://www.cancer.org/cancer/breastcancer/detailedguide/breast-cancer-treating-general-info
Science, M. (n.d.). Genetic Engineering for Cure. Retrieved February 17, 2015, from http://www.slideshare.net/MorganScience/science-project-power-point
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