Ovarian Cancer Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Ovarian Cancer, including details on symptoms, causes, treatment, information.

Ionizing radiation enhances adenoviral vector expressing mda-7/IL-24-mediated apoptosis in human ovarian cancer.

Emdad L, Sarkar D, Lebedeva IV, Su ZZ, Gupta P, Mahasreshti PJ, Dent P, Curiel DT, Fisher PB

Department of Urology, Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbia University Medical Center, College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, New York 10032, USA.

Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cause of cancer-related death in women. Current interventional approaches, including debulking surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiation have proven minimally effective in preventing the recurrence and/or mortality associated with this malignancy. Subtraction hybridization applied to terminally differentiating human melanoma cells identified melanoma differentiation associated gene-7/interleukin-24 (mda-7/IL-24), whose unique properties include the ability to selectively induce growth suppression, apoptosis, and radiosensitization in diverse cancer cells, without causing any harmful effects in normal cells. Previously, it has been shown that adenovirus-mediated mda-7/IL-24 therapy (Ad.mda-7) induces apoptosis in ovarian cancer cells, however, the apoptosis induction was relatively low. We now document that apoptosis can be enhanced by treating ovarian cancer cells with ionizing radiation (IR) in combination with Ad.mda-7. Additionally, we demonstrate that mda-7/IL-24 gene delivery, under the control of a minimal promoter region of progression elevated gene-3 (PEG-3), which functions selectively in diverse cancer cells with minimal activity in normal cells, displays a selective radiosensitization effect in ovarian cancer cells. The present studies support the use of IR in combination with mda-7/IL-24 as a means of augmenting the therapeutic benefit of this gene in ovarian cancer, particularly in the context of tumors displaying resistance to radiation therapy.

Published 31 May 2006 in J Cell Physiol, 208(2): 298-306.
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