title: Gene therapy in pancreatic cancer.
abstract: Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a highly lethal disease and notoriously difficult to treat. Only a small proportion of PC patients are eligible for surgical resection, whilst conventional chemoradiotherapy only has a modest effect with substantial toxicity. Gene therapy has become a new widely investigated therapeutic approach for PC. This article reviews the basic rationale, gene delivery methods, therapeutic targets and developments of laboratory research and clinical trials in gene therapy of PC by searching the literature published in English using the PubMed database and analyzing clinical trials registered on the Gene Therapy Clinical Trials Worldwide website (http://www. wiley.co.uk/genmed/ clinical). Viral vectors are main gene delivery tools in gene therapy of cancer, and especially, oncolytic virus shows brighter prospect due to its tumor-targeting property. Efficient therapeutic targets for gene therapy include tumor suppressor gene p53, mutant oncogene K-ras, anti-angiogenesis gene VEGFR, suicide gene HSK-TK, cytosine deaminase and cytochrome p450, multiple cytokine genes and so on. Combining different targets or combination strategies with traditional chemoradiotherapy may be a more effective approach to improve the efficacy of cancer gene therapy. Cancer gene therapy is not yet applied in clinical practice, but basic and clinical studies have demonstrated its safety and clinical benefits. Gene therapy will be a new and promising field for the treatment of PC.
authors.affiliation: Si-Xue Liu, Department of Gastroenterology, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510120, Guangdong Province, China.
authors.forename: Si-Xue
authors.initials: SX
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Si-Xue Liu, Department of Gastroenterology, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510120, Guangdong Province, China.
authors.forename: Zhong-Sheng
authors.initials: ZS
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.affiliation: Si-Xue Liu, Department of Gastroenterology, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510120, Guangdong Province, China.
authors.forename: Ying-Qiang
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Zhong
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000235:genetics; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000235:genetics; D019008:Drug Resistance, Neoplasm / Q000235:genetics; D020868:Gene Silencing; D018014:Gene Transfer Techniques; D015316:Genetic Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic / Q000235:genetics; D009857:Oncogenes; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000235:genetics; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Anti-angiogenesis; Clinical trial; Gene therapy; Immunotherapy; Multidrug resistance; Oncogene; Pancreatic cancer; Suicide; Tumor suppressor