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Suicide Gene Injection Cuts Colon Cancer Metastasis

Suicide gene therapy consists of the transfer into tumor cells of a “suicide” gene that can convert a non-toxic compound into a lethal drug.

Injectable suicide gene therapy may be a highly effective way of preventing colon cancer from metastasizing, finds research in the current issue of Gut.

Human colon cancer carries a high risk of death because it is often not found in the early stages and readily spreads to the liver, the lungs and throughout the abdominal cavity (peritoneum).

The suicide gene treatment seems to be just as effective when injected beneath the skin as it is when introduced directly into the tumor site, the research shows.

In this therapy, a normally harmless compound is converted into a lethal drug which will then attack malignant cancer cells. Because it is specifically targeted, the treatment avoids all the toxic side effects associated with conventional chemotherapy as it kills off healthy cells.

Tumor cells carrying the genetic component of the gut bacterium Escherichia coli were injected beneath the skin or directly into the liver tumors of rats with experimentally induced, aggressive colon cancer which had spread to the liver and beyond.

The rats were then treated with an antifungal drug, 5-fluorocytosine. The E. coli gene codes for an enzyme cytosine deaminase, which transforms 5-fluorocytosine into one of the widely used chemotherapy drugs 5-fluoracil or 5-FU.

Injecting the tumor cells carrying the bacterial genetic material beneath the skin or straight into the liver tumor both reduced tumor size and prevented the spread of cancerous cells to other sites.

Within 30 days, the tumors had shrunk by an average 70 per cent compared with a group of rats, which had not been given the injectable therapy.

The authors conclude that suicide gene therapy triggers the immune system into producing a systemic response to the genetically modified tumor cells, so affecting tumors at other sites far from the original tumor. And they suggest that it is a powerful approach to preventing the development and spread of metastatic colon cancer.

(Reference: Subcutaneous or intrahepatic injection of suicide gene modified tumour cells induces a systemic antitumour response in a metastatic model of colon carcinoma in rats. Gut 2002: 50;387-91.)

(Editor's Note: Full text is available at this URL.)

[Contact: Dr. Valérie Pierrefite-Carle, Emma Wilkinson]

12-Feb-2002

 

 

 

 

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