The Current Status of Gene Therapy for Prostate Cancer.

Abstract

Background: Due to limitations of local and systemic therapies for prostate cancer, interest has continued in the development of new treatment modalities. Gene therapy has emerged as a new approach that may prevent or treat disease by using the therapeutic information encoded in DNA sequences. Several institutions are actively experimenting with this approach. Methods: The authors review the most common genetic alterations in prostate cancer, the principles of gene therapy, and gene delivery including both viral and nonviral vectors. Treatment strategies for both cytoreductive gene therapy as well as corrective gene therapy are described, and the available protocols to date with gene therapy for the treatment of prostate cancer are presented. Results and Conclusions: More than 150 active protocols are ongoing to evaluate gene therapy in the treatment of cancer, with 13 of these open for patients with prostate cancer. The future of gene therapy as applicable to prostate cancer depends on additional development of vector systems and a better understanding of the genes involved in tumor induction and proliferation. Although gene therapy is clearly in its infancy, it is in an explosive growth phase and holds tremendous promise as a treatment modality for prostate cancer.