Genome editing in cancer: Challenges and potential opportunities

Abstract

Ever since its mechanism was discovered back in 2012, the CRISPR/Cas9 system have revolutionized the field of genome editing. While at first it was seen as a therapeutic tool mostly relevant for curing genetic diseases, it has been recently shown to also hold the potential to become a clinically relevant therapy for cancer. However, there are multiple challenges that must be addressed prior to clinical testing. Predominantly, the safety of the system when used for in-vivo therapies, including off-target activity and the effects of the double strand break induction on genomic stability. Here, we will focus on the inherent challenges in the CRISPR/Cas9 system and discuss various opportunities to overcoming these challenges.

Keywords

• Genome editing
• CRISPR/Cas systems
• Cancer therapy
• Off-target activity