WSJ.com - Scientists Use Gene Therapy To Shrink Malignant Tumors

For the first time in the history of treating cancer, gene therapy has apparently succeeded in shrinking and even eradicating large, metastatic tumors. The therapy worked in only two of 17 patients who were treated. But many researchers are hailing the study… because it provides compelling evidence in human patients that gene therapy can be effective against one of the toughest challenges in medicine: terminal cancer.

This is striking. We’ve heard for years that gene therapy may yield miraculous treatments for our most virulent maladies, but to see evidence of it working is stunning. We all are in the debt of those who dedicate their lives to this kind of groundbreaking research. This also affirms the need for government funded “big science.” Some problems can only be solved by all of us pooling our resources.

(via the WSJ.)