Gene Therapy for the Treatment of Brain Tumors

Completed · Phase 1

Conditions studied: Brain Neoplasm, Neoplasm Metastasis

In brief

Malignant brain tumors are responsible for a significant amount of deaths in children and adults. Even with advances in surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy, many patients diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor survive only months to weeks. In an attempt to improve the prognosis for these patients, researchers have developed a new approach to brain tumor therapy. This approach makes use of DNA technology to transfer genes sensitive to therapy into the cells of the tumor. Infections with the herpes simplex virus can cause cold sores in the area of the mouth. A drug called ganciclovir (Cytovene) can kill the virus. Ganciclovir is effective because the herpes virus contains a gene (Herpes-Thymidine Kinase TK gene) that is sensitive to the drug. Researchers have been able to separate this gene from the virus. Using DNA technology, researchers hope to transfer and implant the TK gene into tumor cells making them sensitive to ganciclovir. In theory, giving patients ganciclovir will kill all tumor cells that have the TK gene incorporated into them.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT00001328

Run by

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)

People needed

15

Starts

1992-08-21

Expected to finish

2010-04-30

Last updated by the study team

2017-07-02

Who can join

Age: 19 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may not qualify if…

• No pregnant women will be entered into the study.
• Patients with HIV infection will not be accepted for this study.

Where it is running

• National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, 9000 Rockville Pike — Bethesda, Maryland, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

Trial information comes from ClinicalTrials.gov and is refreshed daily. TrialsForMe does not provide medical care and does not run the studies it lists.