The Hunchback of Notre-Dame の感想

The main character of this novel is a hunchback called "Quasimodo".
The detailed description of this man clearly indicates that he is a severe NF1 patient suffering from NF (neurofibromatosis), a genetic disease caused by dysfunction of NF1 gene product which is a RAS GAP (GTPase activating protein).
This disease was first discovered by a German pathologist, Friedrich von Recklinghausen in 1882. Amazingly, this novel was written by Victor Hugo in 1831, several decades before the discovery of this disease. So I am very much impressed by the author’s keen observation of this rare (orphan) disease patient. NF occurs only one in 3,000 people. In other words, around 2 millions are currently suffering from this disease world-wide.

Unfortunately, until very recently no effective therapeutic was found available on the market. However, owing to the recent advance in bio-medical science, in particular molecular oncology, the first effective NF therapeutic was found around