Gene therapy | Cancer Research UK

Researchers are looking at different ways of using gene therapy, including

Some types of gene therapy aim to boost the body's natural ability to attack cancer cells. Our immune system has cells that recognise and kill harmful things that can cause disease, such as cancer cells.

There are many different types of immune cell. Some of them produce proteins that encourage other immune cells to destroy cancer cells. Some types of therapy add genes to a patient's immune cells to make them better at finding or destroying particular types of cancer. There are a few trials using this type of gene therapy in the UK.

Some gene therapies put genes into cancer cells to make the cells more sensitive to particular treatments such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy. This type of gene therapy aims to make the other cancer treatments work better.

Some types of gene therapy deliver genes into the cancer cells that allow the cells to change drugs from an inactive form to an active form. The inactive form of the drug is called a pro drug.

After giving the carrier containing the gene, the doctor gives the patient the pro drug. The pro drug may be a tablet or capsule that you swallow, or you may have it into the bloodstream.

The pro drug circulates in the body and doesn't harm normal cells. But when it reaches the cancer cells, the gene activates it and the drug kills the cancer cells.

Some gene therapies block processes that cancer cells use to survive. For example, most cells in the body are programmed to die if their DNA is damaged beyond repair. This is called programmed cell death or apoptosis. But cancer cells block this process so they don't die even when they are supposed to. Some gene therapy strategies aim to reverse this blockage. Doctors hope that these new types of treatment will make the cancer cells die.

Some viruses infect and kill cells. Researchers are working on ways to change these viruses so that they only target and kill cancer cells, leaving healthy cells alone. This sort of treatment uses the viruses to kill cancer cells directly rather than to deliver genes. So it is not cancer gene therapy in the true sense of the word. But doctors sometimes refer to it as gene therapy.

One example of this type of research uses the cold sore virus (herpes simplex virus). The changed virus is called Oncovex. It has been tested in early clinical trials for advanced melanoma, pancreatic cancer and head and neck cancers.

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Gene therapy | Cancer Research UK