Gene Therapy In Squamous Cell Carcinoma – A Short Review

Oral cancer remains one of the leading causes of death world wide. Various means to destroy tumor cells preferentially have been developed; gene therapy is one among them with less treatment morbidity. Gene therapy involves the transfer of therapeutic or working copy of genes into a specific cell of an individual in order to repair a faulty copy of gene. The alteration can be accomplished by repairing or replacing the damaged DNA by various strategies and vectors. To date genetically altered viruses are commonly used as gene delivery vehicle (vector) which has an advantage of evolutionary selection of host-virus relation. Non viral vectors which include the physical transfection of genes can be accomplished by electrophoration, microinjection, or use of ballistic particles and chemical transfection by forming liposomes.