P53 Cancer Gene Therapy - First Results Published

The results of a ground-breaking Phase I trial using gene therapy to treat lung cancer through the restoration of the defective p53 gene, which under normal circumstances works as a tumor-suppressor, have been published in the September issue of Nature Medicine.

Almost half of the million new cases of cancer each year can be attributed to a deletion or mutation in one copy of the p53 tumor-suppressor gene, and among the cases of lung cancer, of which there are estimated to be 170,000 new diagnoses per year, approximately 56% have a p53 mutation, 90% in small cell lung cancer and 55% in non-small cell lung cancer. Mortality in 85% of these patients normally occurs within five years of diagnosis, therefore gene therapy could offer a key step in treatment, the article notes.

In the study led by Jack Roth of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, in collaboration with Introgen Therapeutics and RPR Gencell, a subsidiary of Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, nine patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer were enrolled on the trial to determine whether this genetic abnormality could be reversed. All patients had been treatment-resistant to surgical procedures, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.