PARENT SESSION
9:00 AM to 11:00 AM
Monday, April 22, 2002
Symposium 9
Genetic Therapy
Room: Crystal Ballroom 1-2
Chair: Schmidt-Ullrich, Rupert¹¹Virginia Commonwealth University, Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, VA
Speakers: Valerie, Kristoffer⁴; Freytag, Svend⁵; Dritschilo, Anatoly⁶; Greenberger, Joel⁷⁴⁵Department of Radiation Oncology, Detroit, MI⁶Georgetown University, Washington, DC⁷Dept. of Radiation Oncology, Pittsburgh, PA

(S09-1) Novel adenoviruses for radiosensitization of CNS and head and neck tumors.

Valerie, Kristoffer^*,1, Rosenberg, Elizabeth¹, Holmes, Matthew¹, Contessa, Joseph¹, Hewit, Todd¹, Abell, Angela¹, Lin, Peck-Sun¹, Schmidt-Ullrich, Rupert¹, ¹ Department of Radiation Oncology, Richmond, VA

ABSTRACT-
Adenovirus vectors show promise for the efficient delivery of therapeutic genes into tumors as ways to improve cancer therapy. However, considerable technical hurdles need to be overcome to improve virus delivery, obtain specific expression of the therapeutic gene in the tumor, and minimize normal tissue toxicity. In recent years, different strategies have been developed that use radiation in combination with adenovirus-mediated gene delivery to potentiate the treatment of various cancers. Our group has developed adenovirus vectors that express mutant HSV-TK that is able to efficiently utilize clinically achievable concentrations of prodrug in the CNS, and different dominant-negative ErbBs that radiosensitize animal tumors. These vectors are now ready for testing in humans. To capitalize on the unique property of radiation to target the tumor we are developing radiation-inducible promoter and conditional replication-competent adenoviruses. We will discuss progress and future applications.

KEYWORDS: gene therapy, HSV-TK, glioma, EGFR