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Technology insight: gene therapy and its potential role in the treatment of medullary thyroid carcinoma.

Abstract
Metastatic medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) responds poorly to conventional treatments with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Gene therapy--the transfer of genetic material for therapeutic purposes--might have therapeutic potential for patients with progressive metastatic MTC that is incurable by conventional treatments. To date, a number of gene-therapy strategies have been explored, primarily those that use replication-deficient adenovirus vectors to transfer therapeutic genes to tumor cells. Tissue-specific expression of the promoter for calcitonin and calcitonin-related polypeptide alpha has allowed therapeutic genes to be specifically expressed in calcitonin-secreting cells and in the MTC tumors derived from them; such tissue-specific expression contributes to improved safety of gene therapies and has the potential to increase their therapeutic index. In addition, the identification of an MTC-specific peptide ligand raises the possibility of developing an MTC-selective vector. In this article, we have described the exciting area of gene therapy in the management of MTC with a focus on preclinical in vitro and in vivo MTC models.
AuthorsMarinella Messina, Bruce G Robinson
JournalNature clinical practice. Endocrinology & metabolism (Nat Clin Pract Endocrinol Metab) Vol. 3 Issue 3 Pg. 290-301 (Mar 2007) ISSN: 1745-8366 [Print] England
PMID17315037 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Review)
Topics
  • Carcinoma, Medullary (therapy)
  • Clinical Trials as Topic
  • Combined Modality Therapy
  • Gene Targeting
  • Genetic Therapy (methods)
  • Humans
  • Immunotherapy (methods)
  • Thyroid Neoplasms (therapy)

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