Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2015 Feb;230(2):259-71.
doi: 10.1002/jcp.24791.

Gene Therapies for Cancer: Strategies, Challenges and Successes

Swadesh K Das  1   2   3 , Mitchell E Menezes  1 , Shilpa Bhatia  1 , Xiang-Yang Wang  1   2   3 , Luni Emdad  1   2   3 , Devanand Sarkar  1   2   3 , Paul B Fisher  1   2   3
Affiliations
Review

Gene Therapies for Cancer: Strategies, Challenges and Successes

Swadesh K Das et al. J Cell Physiol. 2015 Feb.

Abstract

Gene therapy, which involves replacement of a defective gene with a functional, healthy copy of that gene, is a potentially beneficial cancer treatment approach particularly over chemotherapy, which often lacks selectivity and can cause non-specific toxicity. Despite significant progress pre-clinically with respect to both enhanced _targeting and expression in a tumor-selective manner several hurdles still prevent success in the clinic, including non-specific expression, low-efficiency delivery and biosafety. Various innovative genetic approaches are under development to reconstruct vectors/transgenes to make them safer and more effective. Utilizing cutting-edge delivery technologies, gene expression can now be _targeted in a tissue- and organ-specific manner. With these advances, gene therapy is poised to become amenable for routine cancer therapy with potential to elevate this methodology as a first line therapy for neoplastic diseases. This review discusses recent advances in gene therapy and their impact on a pre-clinical and clinical level.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The timelines and milestones in developing gene therapy approaches: from conception to clinical applications.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Progression timelines for mda-7/IL-24 development as a therapeutic gene: from “bench to bedside.” After discovery, multiple approaches were used to enhance therapeutic outcome of mda-7/IL-24-mediated gene therapy of cancer.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Abel EL, Angel JM, Kiguchi K, DiGiovanni J. Multi-stage chemical carcinogenesis in mouse skin: Fundamentals and applications. Nat Protoc. 2009;4:1350–1362. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ahmad MZ, Akhter S, Rahman Z, Akhter S, Anwar M, Mallik N, Ahmad FJ. Nanometric gold in cancer nanotechnology: current status and future prospect. J Pharm Pharmacol. 2013;65:634–651. - PubMed
    1. Ahrendt SA, Hu Y, Buta M, McDermott MP, Benoit N, Yang SC, Wu L, Sidransky D. P53 mutations and survival in stage I non-small-cell lung cancer: results of a prospective study. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2003;95:961–970. - PubMed
    1. Aied A, Greiser U, Pandit A, Wang W. Polymer gene delivery: Overcoming the obstacles. Drug Discov Today. 2013;18:1090–1098. - PubMed
    1. Akada M, Crnogorac-Jurcevic T, Lattimore S, Mahon P, Lopes R, Sunamura M, Matsuno S, Lemoine NR. Intrinsic chemoresistance to gemcitabine is associated with decreased expression of BNIP3 in pancreatic cancer. Clinical Cancer Research. 2005;11:3094–3101. - PubMed

Publication types

  NODES
HOME 2
iOS 1
Javascript 1
mac 3
Note 1
os 13
text 12
twitter 2
web 4