Gene delivery for lung cancer using nonviral gene vectors

Multiple options for the treatment of lung cancer have often been described in the past, including surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, but the therapeutic effect is typically transient and mostly absent with advanced disease. New approaches to the treatment of lung cancer are urgently needed. Gene therapy has been widely proposed as a novel strategy to improve therapy. Although progress has been made using viral vectors, rapid advances in transfection technologies employing nonviral vectors, together with their relatively low toxicity, suggest that nonviral vectors may have significant potential for clinical applications. This paper briefly reviews general principles of gene delivery with emphasis on recent developments in the arena of lung cancer using nonviral vectors (naked DNA, polycationic polymers, cationic liposomes). Employing gene transfer techniques to achieve therapeutically useful levels of expression of therapeutic genes in the lung could provide a new strategy for treatment of lung cancer.