Gene therapy for prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death among men in western society. CSIRO researchers are developing a form of gene therapy to treat this disease.

Each year around 3,000 men in Australia die from prostate cancer. Detected early, while still confined to the prostate gland, the cancer can be cured by surgery or radiation therapy.

Treatments for cancer that has spread from the prostate to other parts of the body work by suppressing or blocking male hormones, which the cancer needs for growth. But the success of this treatment is limited because tumours that do not need hormones for growth usually develop within a few years, and there is no effective treatment for these.

CSIRO Molecular Science researchers, working with cancer researchers at the Prince of Wales Hospital’s Oncology Research Centre in Sydney are developing a form of gene therapy to treat all types of prostate cancer.

The experimental therapy is being developed in collaboration with the Australian pharmaceutical company Mayne Pharma. A harmless virus is used as a ‘taxi’ to deliver genes directly to tumours. Once inside a tumour’s cells, the genes activate a cell-killing drug to destroy it. The advantage of this treatment is that the cell-killing drug is only activated in prostate cells, so other parts of the body are not affected.

Gene therapy offers a number of potential advantages over current treatments for prostate cancer:

• More effective when treating later stages of the disease;

• More effective at treating disease that has spread beyond the prostate;

• Treatment is likely to be less invasive and so more comfortable for the patient; and

• Likely to reduce side effects like impotence and incontinence.

Experiments involving genetically modified viruses are carried out in secure laboratories in accordance with regulations set by the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 23rd, 2007 at 9:15 am and is filed under Uncategorized, Prostate Cancer, News Items. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.