Personalizing gene therapy in gastric cancer

Gene therapy was proposed many decades ago as a more straightforward and definitive way of curing human diseases, but only recently technical advancements and improved knowledge have allowed its active development as a broad and promising research field. After the first successes in the cure of genetic and infectious diseases, it has been actively investigated as a means to decrease the burden and suffering generated by cancer. The field of gastric cancer is witnessing an impressive flourishing of studies testing the possibilities and actual efficacy of the many different strategies employed in gene therapy, and overall results seem to be two-sided: while original ideas and innovative protocols are providing extremely interesting contributions with great potential, more advanced-phase studies concluded so far have fallen short of expectations regarding efficacy, although invariably demonstrating little or no toxicity. An overview of the major efforts in this field is provided here, and a critical discussion is presented on the single strategies undertaken and on the overall balance between potentiality and pitfalls. (C) 2006 Prous Science. All rights reserved.