Non-technical Abstract 
Some ovarian cancer patients are incurable. All patients who die from this disease 
have been treated with standard forms of chemotherapy and radiation. The patients 
tumor cells have become resistant to <frug and radiation therapy. We plan to 
genetically modify tumor cells from unrelated ovarian cancer patients, which have 
been adapted to cell culture, to increase the tumor’s susceptibility to one form of 
chemotherapy. In addition, we plan to injected these tumor cells with increased 
sensitivity to chemotherapy into the patients’ existing tumor in order to transfer the 
susceptibility to chemotherapy to the patients’ tumor cells which cannot be genetically 
modified in tissue culture. 
The gene for herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (TK) will be inserted into the 
unrelated ovarian tumor cells to increase their susceptibility to the <frug ganciclovir. 
We have demonstrated that tumor cells containing the HSV-TK gene will be killed by 
the drug ganciclovir both in tissue culture and in mice. In addition, we have shown that 
TK containig irradiated tumor cells can transfer the susceptibility to ganciclovir to 
nearby unmodified TK negaktive tumor cells. Thus, we plan to inject irradiated TK 
positive ovarian tumor cells into the tumor containing abdomen of ovarian cancer 
patients in relapse (with no cure). The TK tumor cells will then be treated with 
ganciclovir to activate the TK positive tumor cells such that both the TK positive and TK 
negative tumor dies. 
Recombinant DNA Research, Volume 15 
[607] 
