Adenovirus-p53 gene therapy in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma xenografts

Background: One major challenge to human cancer gene therapy, is efficient delivery of the gene-vector complex. Methods and results: Using two distinct human nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) models, we demonstrate that intra-tumoural (IT) administration of adenoviral-mediated wild-type p53 gene therapy (Ad-p53) caused no greater inhibition of tumour growth as compared to ionizing radiation (XRT) alone. Detailed histologic examination of tumour sections demonstrated that < 15% of tumour cells were transduced by IT adv-<beta>-gal. Conclusions: This report underscores the importance of developing gene transfer vectors, which can provide therapeutic levels of transgene expression efficiently in solid tumours. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.