This review (0.8MB) appeared in Science News on August 31, 1996, (vol. 150:134) and shows how some cells may have a defective p53 gene, the gene that usually "tells" a cancer cell to commit suicide, or at least to not divide again. This happens about half of the time when tumor cells are produced by mutation in the oncogenes. In an effort to repair the locus, it was attached to a virus genome, and the virus particles were used to infect cancer cells in people who had been unsuccessfully received chemotherapy and irradiation therapy. It works for localized tumors.
Maintained by Dick Richardson
d.richardson@mail.utexas.edu
Last updated 01/20/04
