it is also best known as famvir

products containing  famciclovir:

famciclovirum

Kidney Cancer

Gene therapy, a new and exciting area of research, is helping scientists develop vaccines that fight cancer. Cells are taken from a tumor, genetically altered, and injected back into the animal or person they came from. This is called "gene modified autologous tumor-cell vaccine." Most research has been with mice, but studies with humans have begun too.

Researchers at the University of South Florida in Tampa are trying an untested method of making these vaccines for kidney cancer. Most research uses viruses to modify the original cancer cells, but this method requires expensive facilities, and some viruses will only work on dividing cells. Also, some of the viruses cause the body to start fighting them after multiple doses.

The Florida researchers created a vaccine using a gene gun that "injects" genetic material through the cell membrane into cancer cells. They cultured tumor tissue from patients with renal carcinoma in the lab. Then DNA containing a gene called hGM-CFS, which produces proteins that stimulate the immune system, was mixed with gold particles and inserted into the cells with a gene gun.

After this process, called transfection, the kidney cancer cells began producing the hGM-CFS gene almost immediately, with no difference between "fresh" cancer cells and those that had been in freeze storage for up to four months.

To show that the vaccine can be stored for long periods of time, the scientists froze transfected cells in liquid nitrogen for three weeks. When thawed, they produced hGM-CFS within 24 hours.

The researchers estimate that each "cube" of tumor tissue (one-centimeter-square) could produce up to 32 vaccines. It's important to produce enough vaccines for animal studies and initial studies with humans.

Writing in the October 1999 issue of "The Journal of Neurology," the researchers concluded that using a gene gun to create the vaccines is safer and simpler than using retroviruses. In addition, their vaccines worked on non-dividing cells. They are planning to begin Phase 1 clinical trials in humans, testing their vaccine for safety and observing its effect on kidney cancer cells.