Gene therapy of mesothelioma

Despite improved diagnostic skills and new chemotherapeutic regimens, malignant mesothelioma (MM) remains a pathological disease with survival expectations after diagnosis remaining < 1 year. As the incidence of this disease has yet to peak, there is a pressing need for new therapeutic approaches. One such approach is gene therapy, which inserts 'therapeutic' genes into (generally) tumour cells seeking to induce tumour regression via a number of different theoretical mechanisms. This approach may be particularly relevent for mesothelioma as it is localised to body cavities and is readily accessible for biopsy sampling or for gene delivery. Furthermore, as MM patients rarely die from distant metastases, treating the primary tumour site may result in significant symptomatic and survival benefit. Herein, the paper discusses past, present and future views on gene therapy in the treatment of MM.