[Recent trends of gene therapy of human patients]

Recent trends of gene therapy in the USA, European countries and in Japan are reviewed. Although only the gene treatment for ADA deficiency was shown to be effective, many clinical trials of gene treatment for cancer or other disorders have already been approved by the RAC of NIH. In Japan, the Ministry of Health and Welfare started to make a guide line for human somatic cell gene treatment. This guide line is expected to be publicized by the end of March of 1993. It is therefore, expected that gene treatment will start in Japan in the very near future.