[Gene therapy for prostate cancer]

The substantial advances made in recent years in the molecular biology of malignant urological tumors and the associated progressive analysis of these conditions at a molecular level have spurred research aimed at gene-based treatment. In the field of prostate cancer, while there have been many ground-breaking studies particularly in the United States, none has yet led to a revolutionary treatment for recurrent prostate cancer. Gene-based treatment is being applied seriously in clinical settings, especially in the United States, but so far without significant effect. Many researchers worldwide are devoting energy to the development of effective vectors. By adjusting the promoter, which has the function of directing the vector, we have developed organ-specific vectors for the treatment of prostate cancer. In the present study, which targeted prostate cancer with bone metastasis, we developed a suicide-gene therapy using an adenovirus vector with an organ-specific osteocalcin promoter. Clinical trials of this vector have already been conducted at the University of Virginia in the United States and have so far confirmed the safety of the therapy. In the present paper we present the results of this gene-therapy research from the basic to the clinical phase alongside an outline of related research at our institution. Gene therapy for cancer is now being targeted not only against the primary tumor but systemic cancers including distant metastases; systemic administration of adenovirus vectors with organ-specific promoters may become one of the most promising systemic anti-tumor therapies of the next-generation.