combining radiation treatment with ‘suicide gene therapy tagged posts

The image on the left shows high-grade aggressive prostate cancer before treatment. the image on the right shows no evidence of cancer after combined gene therapy and radiotherapy. Credit: Houston Methodist

Results from a long-term clinical trial conducted by cancer researchers show that combining radiation treatment with ‘suicide gene therapy’ provides a safe and effective one-two punch against the disease. The researchers compared 2 arms of patients and report high 5-yr overall survival rates of 97% and 94% respectively. That’s a 5 to 20% improvement for survival over historical studies.

66 prostate cancer patients participated in the Phase II clinical trial between 1999 and 2003 and were split into two groups...