Gene therapy and immunotherapy for prostate cancer

Although local prostate cancer (PC) can be cured in most cases by radical p rostatectomy, thera pies for metastatic and androgen-independent PC are lim ited and rather unsatisfactory. Gene and immunotherapy based on progress in molecular biology are novel treatment options especially for these PC stag es. In the field of passive immunotherapy, chimeric/recombinant antibodies and derivatives thereof show promising results in early clinical trails (phase I/II). Before treatment, a careful selection of patients who could profit f rom this therapy is important (theranostics). Concerning active immunothera py, administration of dendritic cells loaded with PC-specific tumor antigen s seems to be an interesting therapy option. Promising gene therapeutic approaches include antisense and suicide gene th erapy. Antisense therapy studies revealed the advantage that even systemic treatment does not lead to strong toxic side effects if the target gene is not involved in important cell functions. Improvement of the gene therapy v ectors and identification of new therapeutic genes for PC are essential pre requisites for successful application in humans. Present developments of alternative approaches show that future treatments will be very patient specific.