'Suicide' Genes Help Slow Ovarian Tumor Growth in Mice
A 'suicide' gene is a gene whose expression in a cell is lethal for that cell, according to MedicineNet.com. These genes could be used to treat ovarian cancer.
THURSDAY, July 30 (HealthDay News) -- Treatment with "suicide" genes slowed ovarian tumor growth in mice and may one day offer a way to treat late-stage ovarian cancer in women, U.S. scientists say.
Currently, there is no effective treatment for advanced ovarian cancer that has recurred after surgery and primary chemotherapy, according to a news release from the American Association for Cancer Research.
In the laboratory experiments on mice, the researchers found that nanoparticle delivery of diphtheria toxin-encoding DNA selectively expressed in ovarian cancer cells significantly slowed the growth of ovarian tumors. The findings appear online in the journal Cancer Research.
"This report is definitely a reason to hope," lead researcher Janet Sawicki, a professor at the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research, said in the news release. "We now have a potential new therapy for the treatment of advanced ovarian cancer that has promise for targeting tumor cells and leaving healthy cells healthy."
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