What’s the Meaning of ‘Cure’ in Gene Therapy?

Gene therapy comes with the expectation that it will “cure” an expanding number of genetic disorders. If you’ve never wondered – and even if you have -- what that word actually means, four Dutch researchers have a surprise in store.

Their analysis, published Aug. 22, 2024, in Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, delves into how “cure” is understood in different medical fields. They distinguish multiple “interpretations,” depending on the setting and the affected group of people, with perhaps unexpected expectations among patients about what will result from treatment and even, in some cases, if a cure is desirable.

The authors conclude that the term “cure” should no longer be used in clinical settings. But in two other contexts — decisions about allocating resources for gene therapy treatments and funding research proposals — they argue that it is useful but needs to be carefully and modestly defined.

First author Lieke Baas, M.Sc., M.A. and a Ph.D. candidate in biomedical ethics at University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, in the Netherlands, and colleagues in bioethics, philosophy and hematology, write that...