Chemotherapy and Suicide Gene Therapy Combination Results in Curing Prostrate Cancer

Researchers have found productive results using a combination of ‘Suicide Gene Therapy’ and chemotherapy in a long term research carried out at the Houston Methodist Hospital. The team registered over 90 percent success rate in treatment of prostate cancer by precipitating body’s immune system response. By introducing a modification in few cancer cells, the medical research team at Houston Methodist Hospital has been able to achieve effective results for patients suffering from prostate cancer.

The research project involved 66 patients who were suffering from prostate cancer. The treatment was tested between 1999 and 2003. In suicide gene therapy, the tumor cells are modified to trigger body’s immune system to kill the tumor cells. The research team divided 66 patients in two groups.  The first group had patients with less severe prostate cancer were treated with radiotherapy. The second group was treated with both hormonal therapy and radiotherapy. Both the groups were treated with suicide gene therapy as well. While severe cases of prostate cancer were offered suicide gene therapy thrice, the less severe prostate cancer patients were given the therapy twice.

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Houston Methodist Hospital medical team controlled prostate cancer cells by using a combination of viruses. The research team informed, “An adenovirus, like the virus that causes the common cold, is used to deliver a herpes virus gene directly into the cells. Once the herpes virus gene was delivered and it started manufacturing TK [thymidine kinase], we gave patients a commonly used anti-herpes drug, valacyclovir.”

Body’s immune system notices tumor cells and attacks them. Study lead author Dr Brian Butler, chair of the radiation oncology department at Houston Methodist said, “We have created a vaccine with the patient’s own cancer cells, a treatment that complements, and may even enhance, what we can achieve with traditional radiation and hormonal therapies.”

It is important to note that researchers claimed that once the activated valacyclovir starts destroying tumor cells, it also alerts the patient’s immune system, previously unaware of the cancer’s presence, that it is time to launch a massive attack.

The survival rate results were 5 to 20 percent better than survival rates achieved by current procedures. Prostate biopsies performed at 24 months after completion of treatment were negative in 83 per cent of Arm A patients and 79 per cent of Arm B patients.

“The combination attacked the herpes DNA, and the TK-producing tumor cells self-destructed, which is why the procedure is called ‘suicide gene therapy,'” explained Dr. Brian Butler, from Houston Methodist.

The study has been published in the Journal of Radiation Oncology on Dec. 12, according to which researchers from the Houston Methodist Hospital manipulated prostate cancer cells using a combination of viruses and adenovirus, the virus known to cause the common cold, to deliver a herpes virus gene into the patients’ cells.

“The combination of immunomodulatory in situ gene therapy and IMRT with or without hormonal therapy is feasible, safe, and effective in the treatment of prostate cancer. The effectiveness of this combined approach was likely through enhanced cytotoxicity, antitumor immune response, and abscopal effects,” the researchers wrote in their study.

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