TREATMENT OF HUMAN TUMORS BY GENETIC TRANSFORMATION OF HUMAN TUMOR CELLS

摘要

A method of treating a tumor in a human host wherein tumor cells are transduced in vivo with a nucleic acid sequence (DNA or RNA) encoding an agent which is capable of providing for the inhibition, prevention, or destruction of the growth of the tumor cells upon expression of the nucleic acid sequence encoding the agent. In one embodiment, such treatment is effected by administering to the tumor in vivo producer cells transduced with a retroviral vector including a gene encoding a negative selective marker. Once the producer cells are administered to the tumor, the producer cells generate infectious viral particles which infect the tumor cells. Upon subsequent administration of an interaction agent which interacts with the negative selective marker to produce an agent which is toxic to the tumor cells, the transduced tumor cells are killed. In a preferred embodiment, the method is used to treat human brain tumors.