New Modalities in Oncology: Antisense Oligonucleotides

Abstract

New and innovative cancer treatments are appearing at an astonishing rate. Although the array of new ap- proaches seems breathtaking, most can be grouped into a few categories based on underlying purpose. For example, with our greater understanding of the genetic defects that predispose to malignant cell growth has come the idea of therapeutic agents targeted to a single mutant protein. This approach can take the form of very specific kinase inhibitors (e.g., STI571 or Gleevec) or can attempt to actually manipulate the expression level of the target protein. This paper discusses the technology of antisense oligonucleotides as an example of the latter approach.