[Gene therapy of cancer]

Therapeutic gene transfer for cancer can aim at different goals, the main of them being: 1. to increase anti-tumor cell immune response; 2. to introduce a drug-activating gene into tumor cells; 3. to normalize cell cycle by inhibiting oncogenes or transferring antioncogenes. Significant, sometimes spectacular results have been reported using models of transplantation of tumor cell lines to animals, but not yet with spontaneous animal tumors. Although most of the about 130 clinical trials of gene therapy authorized around the world are devoted to cancer, it is so far impossible to predict the future of this strategy, and when, if any, it will succeed.