PMID: 9447625Feb 3, 1998Paper

Gene therapy for pediatric brain tumors

Seminars in Pediatric Neurology
B L Maria, T Friedman

Abstract

There have been impressive surgical, radiotherapeutic, and chemotherapeutic advances in treating cancer. However, the outlook for patients with malignant brain tumors is still dismal. Gene therapy offers hope of replacing defective genes, amplifying the immune response to cancer, and sensitizing tumor cells to systemic therapies (suicide gene therapy). The insertion of the thymidine kinase gene from herpes virus (HSV-TK) into glioma cells can sensitize them to intravenous ganciclovir. Pivotal to the HSV-TK strategy is the "bystander effect," which results in a larger number of tumor cells being killed than those that have been genetically altered. The presence of gap junctions between tumor cells and immunocompetence are required experimentally to observe the "bystander effect." At present, clinical trials using suicide gene therapy in newly diagnosed and recurrent gliomas are underway. Suicide gene therapy faces many challenges in neuro-oncology until p53 gene replacement and immunomodulatory strategies become feasible.

References

Dec 1, 1995·Medical and Pediatric Oncology·C A FelixJ A Biegel
Apr 1, 1995·Journal of Molecular Medicine : Official Organ of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Naturforscher Und Ärzte·F Herrmann
Mar 1, 1995·Journal of Internal Medicine·M K Brenner
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Mar 5, 1996·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·M MesnilH Yamasaki

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Citations

Feb 22, 2001·Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy·A Herrström SjöbergS Eriksson
May 3, 2000·Medical Hypotheses·M BabincováP Babinec
Apr 11, 2006·Cancer Gene Therapy·Y Shen, J Nemunaitis
Mar 20, 1999·Current Opinion in Pediatrics·J B Rubin, M W Kieran

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