CYTOKINE GENE-TRANSFER FOR THE TREATMENT OF CANCER

Major progress has been made in the understanding not only of the mole cular mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of cancer, but also of t he complex relations between cancer and the immune system. Among the m ore promising approaches of gene therapy for cancer is the manipulatio n of the immune system, with the development of an immune antitumoral systemic response. Transfer of some cytokine gene in tumor cells has e specially been shown to induce an immune response protecting the anima l against subsequent injection of parental tumor cells, and can even, in some cases, treat efficiently animals carrying a preexisting parent al tumors. These new experimental data form the basis for the recent e laboration of a rapidly increasing number of clinical protocols using cytokine gene transfer for the treatment of human cancer.