New modalities in oncology: antisense oligonucleotides

C. Casey Cunningham, MD

From the Mary Crowley Medical Research Center and the Department of Oncology, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, Texas.

Corresponding author: C. Casey Cunningham, MD, 3535 Worth Street, Collins Building, Fifth Floor, Dallas, Texas 75246 (e-mail: Casey.Cunningham@USOncology.com).

New and innovative cancer treatments are appearing at an astonishing rate. Although the array of new approaches 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. (BUMC Proceedings 2002;15:125-128)