system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Could you sequence the dna of cancer cells and then compare it to the persons healthy cells to locate the genetic mutation and then edit the dna of the cancer cells causing new cells to just be normal again?
gpt
Yes and no.

Yes, as in technology to alter genes exists. It works quite well. We also know from most cancer species what genetic cause there is. So in theory you could alter the gene back to normal.

HOWEVER

The alteration of live human genome is not yet proven to be safe enough. You could cause other, maybe worse, random alterations.

Also, most cancer species build up a lot of different mutations over time to actually become cancerous. You would have to change a lot back to normal.

In addition, tumors have a lot of cells. To actually get to alter ALL of those cells is a challenge. Tumors are also quite heterogeneous so not every cell might need the same alteration to go back to normal. If you leave a couple of cells untouched the tumor may come back.

The now most researched option for gene editing is to cure hereditary forms of cancer. Then you have a gene alteration that already exists in your primal cells, which is easier to alter because there are way less cells you need to treat. You also don't have cancer yet, so there is likely only one mutation that needs to be "fixed". So that will be more in the field of embryonal selection and gene editing.