Anti - Gene IGF-I Technology applied for Cancer Immunotherapy

Jerzy Trojan

IGF-I is one of the most important growth factors related to normal differentiation, and its overproduction in mature tissues is a sign of neoplastic processesin three derivatives: neuroectodermal e.g. brain malignant glioma, entodermal e.g. hepatocarcinoma, and mesodermal e.g. prostate adenocarcinoma. The creation in the early 1990s of a new domain in cancerology named cancer immunogene therapy, has revolutionized the treatment of tumors expressing IGF-I. This new strategy, using anti-gene, either antisense or triple helix anti IGF-I technology, has shown promising results in clinical trials; the median survival of glioblastoma patients reached 21 months and in some cases, three to four years. This strategy was also proven to be efficient in the treatment of liver and prostate cancers.