The Mesothelioma SOS Glossary - Gene Therapy

Gene Therapy involves the insertion of genes into an individual’s cells and tissues to treat a disease. Gene therapy is intended for hereditary illnesses in particular, and typically aims to supplement a defective mutant allele with a functional allele. While gene therapy has not yet been fully developed, it has shown some signs of success in clinical trials. The theory behind gene therapy is that somatic cells, or most cells of the body, can be incorporated into other chromosomes by genetic recombination. Gene therapy is either done ex vivo, or in vivo. Ex vivo involves removing cells from the body, modifying them, and then transplanting them back into the body. In vivo gene therapy does not remove the cells from the body, but rather changes them while they are still within the body. While the probability of recombination is currently rather low, especially in vivo, gene therapy is still developing in clinical trials.