Thymidine Kinase Gene Therapy Extends Survival In Recurrent Cancer.(ovarian cancer)

2002 FEB 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Sonia Nichols, senior medical writer - A combination of tumor debulking, gene therapy, and drug therapy has been determined to increase survival in women with recurrent ovarian cancer approximately a third longer than previously reported.

Because there are no screening tests for ovarian cancer like there are for other cancers, the cancer is usually not detected in women until it has progressed to an advanced stage. Experts estimate there were nearly 23,000 new cases of ovarian cancer in the U.S. alone in the year 2001. Sadly, because it is detected at such a late stage, the cancer may recur after initial treatment, and the death rate among women with recurrent ovarian cancer is high.

Medical researchers in Germany have reported their investigation of a multitier line of treatment for recurrent ovarian cancer that includes surgical removal of as much of the tumor as possible, virus-based gene therapy, and drug therapy with acyclovir and topotecan. They believe the gene therapy extended median survival at rates comparable with surgery and chemotherapy combination therapy.

Ten women with recurrent ovarian cancer participated in the clinical trial, with each receiving different doses of gene therapy consisting of a herpes simplex virus (HSV) thymidine kinase gene shortly after surgery, which was followed by doses of acyclovir and topotecan a day later, according to study investigator A. Hasenburg and colleagues at Freiburg University Medical Center in Freiburg, Germany.

In second-look surgeries performed 4 weeks later, "two out of five patients were free of tumor," Hasenburg and coworkers said. In addition, there was no evidence of residual gene therapy viral DNA in biopsied tissues obtained during the ...