Gene therapy for cancer treatment: past, present and future.

ABSTRACT: The broad field of gene therapy promises a number of innovative treatments that are likely to become important in preventing deaths from cancer. In this review, we discuss the history, highlights and future of three different gene therapy treatment approaches: immunotherapy, oncolytic virotherapy and gene transfer. Immunotherapy uses genetically modified cells and viral particles to stimulate the immune system to destroy cancer cells. Recent clinical trials of second and third generation vaccines have shown encouraging results with a wide range of cancers, including lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, prostate cancer and malignant melanoma. Oncolytic virotherapy, which uses viral particles that replicate within the cancer cell to cause cell death, is an emerging treatment modality that shows g

SUBMITTER: Cross D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1570487 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature