Public Health & Health Science Division, ULAB

Despite an increased understanding of the pathophysiology of breast cancer in recent years, the disease remains largely prevalent in the female population due to its disordered process. Breast cancer is known to affect 1 in 8 women and is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women as well. Treatments are currently being administered mostly in surgical procedures, chemotherapy, and hormone therapy, but current research indicates that there are potential remedies that could alter the metastasis of breast cancer on the DNA level. The usage of CRISPR(Clustered Regularly Interspaced Palindromic Repeats)/Cas9 within breast cancer treatments has grown in popularity immensely in the last decade. CRISPR/Cas9 is a system that utilizes a guide RNA to target and cut specific DNA sequences with the intention of genetically altering the genome. In cancer treatments, the knockout of specific genes utilizing the CRISPR/Cas9 system has proven variably successful in apoptosis by indirectly regulating tumor suppressor genes and causing gene knockouts. However, there are serious limitations and consequences that are being investigated within these therapies, as discussed in this paper.