Section Review—Oncologic, Endocrine & Metabolic: Gene Therapy Strategies for Cancer

Gene therapy of cancer has undergone an explosive development at its infant stage during the past five years. It is an attractive biotechnology not because it has surpassed conventional cancer therapies but for its potential to provide scientists and clinicians with powerful tools to cure cancer through genetic manipulations. Due to the application of molecular biology techniques to cancer treatment, through intervention in the mechanisms of carcinogenesis, the field of cancer gene therapy is filled with opportunities for innovative design of therapeutic strategies. Based on an overview of the field, this article organises current technologies in cancer gene therapy into six major approaches:Genetic sequence-targeted therapies;Tumour suppressor gene therapy;Toxin or prodrug-activation gene therapy;Drug-resistance gene therapy;Cytokine gene therapy and tumour vaccination;Combinational gene therapy.On learning about these technologies, each of which may contain several distinct methodologies, it is easy to ...