Gene therapy of cancer - 12th International Conference

The 12th International Conference on Gene Therapy of Cancer, sponsored by the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, was organized by Robert E Sobol and Kevin Scanlon, and centered on the development and use of viral vectors as therapeutics. The emphasis of this report is on translational and clinical studies, primarily focused on delivery strategies rather then tumor antigens. In many instances, transduced/transfected cells were used to deliver the transgene, including not only dendritic cells as professional antigen-presenting cells, but also transfected autologous and allogenic tumor cells. In addition, immune augmentation with cytokines and growth factor transgenes, including the recently cloned proteins IL-23 and IL-24, were discussed, as was the use of antisense to TGFbeta2 to overcome tumor-associated immunosuppression. The majority of speakers discussed strategies using viral vectors, although strategies with electroporation, minimalistic immunogenically defined gene expression vectors and plasmids were also mentioned. Adenoviruses were the predominating viral vector, although pox viral, herpes simplex viral, retroviral and lentiviral vectors were also used.