Future aspects of immunotherapy and gene therapy in neuroblastoma.
Immunotherapy against cancer aims at stimulating the immune system or building an immune response against targeted tumor-associated antigens (TAAs). It was proposed theoretically as a potential therapy for cancer over a century ago but it became popular in the past two decades. Gene therapy represents a promising approach for reversing the neoplastic phenotype or driving tumor cells to self-destruction. Although survival rates of neuroblastoma (NB) with biologically favorable disease are greater than 90%, outcomes of patients with high risk disease are less than 40%. Stage 4 metastatic NB cases over 18 months of age are often incurable with multimodality chemotherapy regimens. In this article, translation of immuno-gene therapy strategies into clinical trials for NB are reviewed. Future aspects of immuno-gene therapy are discussed.
Dokuz Eylul University, Institute of Oncology, Department of Basic Oncology, Izmir, Turkey. safiyeaktas@yahoo.com
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D000818:Animals; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D015316:Genetic Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D016219:Immunotherapy, Adoptive / Q000379:methods; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000276:immunology; D051379:Mice; D009447:Neuroblastoma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000276:immunology; D019444:Vaccines, DNA / Q000627:therapeutic use*
D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D019444:Vaccines, DNA