A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW: ADVANCES AND CHALLENGES IN CANCER BIOLOGY AND THERAPEUTICS

Cancer is the main contributor for mortality in the world. Conventional therapy that available as the treatment options are chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery. Nowadays, extensive research and investigations are made to develop cell-specific approaches prior to cancer treatment. Some of them are photodynamic therapy, hyperthermia, immunotherapy, stem cell transplantation and targeted therapy. This review article will be focusing on the development of gene therapy in cancer. Initially, the major objective of gene therapy was to manage genetic diseases, but now different disorders with several patterns of acquired and inherited disorders are targets of gene therapy. This review summarizes the principles of genome-editing approaches, such as zinc finger nucleases, transcription activator-like effector nucleases, meganucleases, and the CRISPR/Cas9 system with the underlying mechanisms. This review also explains the types of gene delivery systems as viral and nonviral delivery systems. Finally, this review summarizes gene therapy medicines approved to treat cancer in detail, including names, indications, vectors, and mode of gene therapy. Gene therapy becomes an alternative to an existing management for different diseases. Therefore, gene products with safe vectors and better biotechnologies play a significant role in the prophylaxis and management of various disorders in the future.