How is synthetic lethality and CRISPR able to revolutionize the field of cancer treatment?

Synthetic lethality is an emerging form of cancer treatment that has the potential to alter the field of cancer therapy. Current therapies, unlike novel gene therapies, are more toxic to the human body as well as being harmful to healthy cells. Treating cancer cells with synthetic lethality can avoid damaging the healthy cells by only targeting the mutated ones. Synthetic lethality can be initiated by CRISPR, a gene editing tool that can significantly increase the efficiency of the process. Furthermore, CRISPR screenings can scan for potential gene partners that can be exploited to trigger synthetic lethality in cancer cells. There are a number of clinical trials that use this form of treatment to target cancer cells. However, there are still some obstacles that must be solved to utilize this mechanism to its fullest extent, such as off-target effects from gene editing and gene targeting efficiency. Future research concerning synthetic lethality points toward simplifying the process and improving its accuracy. Nonetheless, despite its drawbacks, using CRISPR to initiate synthetic lethality is a novel and promising form of therapy that can revolutionize the field of cancer treatment.