Gene Transfer into Humans

The application of gene-transfer technology to human gene therapy has been intensively investigated during the past six years. The first experiment in humans, representing an intermediate step toward this objective, was approved by the National Institutes of Health in January 1989. At that time, permission was given for the infusion into patients with advanced melanoma of autologous tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) that had been subjected to retrovirus-mediated gene transfer. Immunotherapy with interleukin-2 and TIL had previously been shown to induce regression of metastatic melanoma in approximately half the patients. In the gene-transfer experiments, an antibiotic-resistance gene was introduced into the TIL . . .