Genetic Cancer Therapy Unveiled

A government scientist Monday unveiled a new gene therapy strategy to combat cancer, an approach aimed at “immunizing” cancer patients against their tumors.

Dr. Steven Rosenberg of the National Cancer Institute said he hoped to begin testing the innovative tactic on people suffering from incurable cancer within six months.

The technique would involve removing a small piece of a patient’s tumor and inserting into the tissue’s genes coding for the production of tumor necrosis factor or interleukin-2, which are natural immune system chemicals.

The genetically engineered tumor cells would then be injected under the patient’s skin, where it is hoped that they would spur the body’s immune system to attack cancer elsewhere in the body. Rosenberg likened the approach to how vaccines work: Injecting a substance associated with a disease boosts immune response.

In studies of mice, researchers found that gene-altered tumor cells grew for a short time and then shrank and disappeared. Mice treated in such a way had increased levels of beneficial tumor-attacking cells, and their immune systems were able to destroy new cancer cells injected by researchers, Rosenberg said.

“Whether this will work the same way in people and whether this will make cancers go away in people, we definitely do not know,” said Rosenberg, who presented his work at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting in Houston.