Future+Outlooks

=__//Future Outlooks //__=

The gene therapy that my expert researches is not yet being used for curing pancreatic cancer patients and is still is being developed in the lab. It is only being experimented on mice called nude mice, and the vector has never been experimented on a human. So I asked my expert how long he thinks it will take until it is experimented on a human, and he answered that he hopes it will be experimented on a human in about 1 year. The reason it will take so long is because he must give an application of the Investigation of New Drugs(IND) to the Food and Drug Administration(FDA). He needs to collect data for toxicology(how toxic or not toxic it is) so that he can attach on the application. After he collects the data and the FDA approves of the further use of the vector, they will start to collect patients that volunteer. This part, which has not been reached yet, is called phase 1, which tests effectiveness of the medicine(the virus vector in this case) and the side effects of the medicine. Medicines are only sold or prescribed in the public and are used by patients until phase 4 is done. I then asked him how effective he thinks the vector will be in the end. He said that of course he is aiming for the complete cure of the cancer, which has never been done in history, but wants the patient's life to go up at least 40-60 days. The first medication that was presented to the public made the patient's life go up about 30 days. The next made the lifespan grow 40 days, 10 more than the one before. I then asked my expert how long he thinks it will take for real human use outside of the labs, meaning going through ""phase 4". He answered that he thinks it will take about 5 years, if everything goes right. I hope that this will be true, because I want the the patients' lifespan to be as long as possible. This vector will also give inspiration and improvements for future researchers, and I hope the suffering of the patients will be reduced as much as possible.

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