Results of a recent study suggest that a technique known as electroporation, where electrical pulses create tiny holes in cell membranes, could be used to deliver a cancer-fighting gene directly into cancer cells. For the study in mice researchers used electroporation to create temporary pores in cancer cells, so that pieces of DNA called plasmids that were carrying the gene for the tumor-fighting protein interleukin-12 (IL-12) could pass directly into the cells. The experimental technique destroyed tumors in 40% of the mice and also appeared to offer the animals long-lasting immunity against the cancer. As when successfully treated mice were injected with cancer cells once a months for 11-months they remained free of the disease.
SOURCE/REFERENCE: Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2002; 94:762-768
