Suicide gene therapy: A special focus on progress and concerns about cancer treatment

Suicide gene therapy is based on transfer of a suicide viral or a bacterial gene into tumor cells. expression of these genes leads to non-toxic substances in cell that are converted to lethal chemotherapeutic agents. although this approach to gene therapy has been widely welcomed by gene researchers and successfully used in many in vivo and in vitro researches, in the case of human clinical trials, the results were not repeated and did not have appropriate clinical consequences. nevertheless, current studies on preclinical models of cancer revealed that suicide gene therapy has a high potential when used in combination with novel therapeutic strategies. this review article summarized various types of suicide gene strategies as well as particular highlighting of the recently developed suicide gene therapy in humans and their adverse effects. moreover, the diverse systems which have been used along with suicide gene therapy were reviewed. finally, this article provides some perspectives into the future of this approach, particularly for eradication of tumor stem cells.