Approaches to Optimize Gene Therapy for the Treatment of Hematologic Malignancies: Overcoming the Obstacles

Gene transfer and oncolytic viruses provide new therapeutic approaches for the treatment of hematologic malignancies. However, it is still too early to introduce gene delivery or oncolytic viruses into standard clinical protocol. It is very important to discuss the obstacles that gene transfer and oncolytic virotherapy face for the further clinical application for the treatment of hematologic malignancies, and updating the advances made to overcome them. The major concerns in this review include the approaches of the development of immuno-stimulatory gene transfer mediated-vaccination for leukemia therapy, RNAi-based therapy for leukemia and enhancement of sensitivity of target malignant cells to virotherapy and alteration of host immune response to favor oncolytic viruses. We conclude with a perspective on the future of the gene therapy and virotherapy for the treatment of hematologic malignancies, emphasizing the problems we should solve and the technological requirements for further clinical applications.

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