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Combined therapeutic use of AdGFPFasL and small molecule inhibitors of ceramide metabolism in prostate and head and neck cancers: a status report

Abstract

As of January 2005, there were 1020 gene therapy clinical trials ongoing worldwide with 675 or 66.2% devoted to cancer gene therapy. The majority are occurring in the US and Europe (http://www.wiley.co.uk/genetherapy/clinical/). At the present time, to our knowledge there are no trials that employ gene delivery of Fas Ligand (FasL). As an important note, and in contrast to somatic cell therapy trials, there are no reported deaths due to therapeutic vector administration in any cancer gene therapy trial. That said, from our studies and from the published literature, the issue of gene delivery remains the major obstacle to successfully employing gene therapy for cancer treatment. Numerous laboratories are studying this with many different approaches. My co-workers and I have focused on the delivery issue by using various approaches that address tumor targeting and transgene expression. In addition, we are focusing on enhancing tumor cell killing via the bystander effect and through use of small molecules to enhance bystander activity.

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Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Janie Nelson for producing the drawing for this paper and for secretarial assistance. Both normal and cancerous tissues were obtained from the Hollings Cancer Center Tumor Bank. Supported by NIH/NCI PO1 CA97132 and 1R24 CA82933.

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Correspondence to J S Norris.

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Norris, J., Bielawska, A., Day, T. et al. Combined therapeutic use of AdGFPFasL and small molecule inhibitors of ceramide metabolism in prostate and head and neck cancers: a status report. Cancer Gene Ther 13, 1045–1051 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.cgt.7700965

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