Agene known as tum1 is found to be commonly deleted in colon cancer tumors. researchers use crisper to make the tum1 gene promoter more active in mice and discover that this gene edit can reduce cancer rates. the original association between tum1 and colon cancer would be best characterized as

The correct answer to fill in the blank here, would be: The original association between tum1 and colon cancer would be best characterized as a: reverse approach.

Explanation:

In the treatment of cancer, especially of metastatic cancer, the usual focus was first on the primary source of the lesions and then the metastatic organs, in order to reduce tumor size and be able to resect as much as possible, for better prognosis. However, in studies carried out recently, a new approah was proposed, which is known as the reverse approach. Basically, its idea is to treat the matter in reverse, going not from the origin, but rather from the result, and working back to the origin itself. In this case, researchers knew that the common denominator for cancerous tumors in the colon was the deletion of the tum1  gene. So, what they did in the study was activate that gene in mice to see how the suppression of that one gene could work in suppressing and reducing cancer rates. This is the very idea of reverse approach.