title: Gene therapy for lung cancer.
abstract: Lung cancer patients suffer a 15% overall survival despite advances in chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and surgery due to the usual finding of advanced disease at diagnosis. Attempts to improve survival in advanced disease using various combinations of chemotherapy have demonstrated that no regimen is superior, suggesting a therapeutic plateau and the need for novel, more specific, and less toxic therapeutic strategies. Techniques have been developed that allow transfer of functional genes into mammalian cells, such as those that block activated tumor-promoting oncogenes and/or those that replace inactivated tumor-suppressing or apoptosis-promoting genes. This article will discuss the therapeutic implications of these molecular changes associated with bronchogenic carcinomas, and will then review the status of gene therapies for treatment of lung cancer.
authors.affiliation: Duke Thoracic Oncology Program, Duke University Medical Center, Box 3048, Durham, NC 27710, USA. toloz001@mc.duke.edu
authors.forename: Eric M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Toloza
mesh_terms: D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / Q000235:genetics; D015316:Genetic Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000628:therapy*; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic / Q000235:genetics / Q000517:prevention & control