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| From OncoLog,
March 2009, Vol. 54, No. 3 |
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Gene Therapy Shows Promise for Pediatric Bone Cancer
In a recent study, M. D. Anderson researchers found evidence in a mouse model that gene therapy delivered to tumors via stem cells might prove effective against pediatric bone cancers.
The authors reported significantly inhibiting tumor growth by delivering the antiangiogenic interleukin-12 (IL-12) gene to Ewing sarcoma tumors in mice. Such targeted delivery of cancer therapy theoretically avoids most of the side effects caused by treatments that also affect healthy tissue. Current therapies for pediatric bone cancers such as Ewing sarcoma include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, all of which cause major side effects.
The group, led by Eugenie Kleinerman, M.D., professor and head of M. D. Anderson’s Division of Pediatrics, had previously used IL-12 to treat Ewing sarcoma and osteosarcoma successfully in the lab by preventing the blood vessel growth that supports a tumor. Following earlier findings published by Dr. Kleinerman’s group that some bone marrow cells are attracted to tumors, the researchers decided to use such cells as gene therapy vectors. The researchers reasoned that bone marrow stem cells that are attracted to sarcomas specifically promise a new, less toxic way to carry IL-12 to the tumors.
Dr. Kleinerman’s group, which included Xiaoping Duan, M.D., Hui Guan, Ph.D., and Ying Cao, Ph.D., transfected the IL-12 gene into bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from mice using adenoviral vectors and then injected the MSCs into mice with Ewing sarcoma. Kleinerman’s team found that injecting IL-12–bearing cells indeed halted tumor growth without damaging normal tissue, and she is hopeful that this therapeutic approach can be used to treat a variety of cancers.
“There is a great need for new therapeutic approaches for Ewing sarcoma patients, especially those whose disease has relapsed or those who have metastases,” Dr. Kleinerman said. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in Cancer.
Laurence Cooper, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor and head of the Cell Therapy Program in the Children’s Cancer Hospital at M. D. Anderson, is working to standardize the production of gene therapy cell lines for clinical testing.
For more information on this topic or for questions about M. D. Anderson’s treatments, programs, or services, call askMDAnderson at (877) MDA-6789.
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