Killer genes in pancreatic cancer therapy

This review describes: 1. the main genetic alterations found in pancreatic cancer (EGF-R overexpression, SST-2 somatostatin receptor loss of expression, k-ras, p53 mutations and DPC4 mutations) and the effect of their replacements by gene therapy on tumor growth; 2. the use of suicide genes (HSV-TK and CD) for pancreatic cancer gene therapy in vitro and in vivo; 3. the implications for pancreatic cancer treatment when using cytotoxic bacterial toxins; 4. viral and non-viral delivery systems for the transfer of therapeutical genes into pancreatic cancer cells. Overall both the correction of pancreatic cancer cells main genetic alterations and the use of suicide genes allow only partial tumor regression in vitro and in vivo. The lack of a 100% effect for any studied strategy considered alone, indicates the need for combined therapies to achieve a satisfactory treatment of this tumor.