Mesenchymal stem cells as cellular vehicles for prodrug gene therapy against tumors

This review will summarize the current knowledge about MSCs engineered to express different suicide genes (cytosine deaminase, thymidine kinase, carboxylesterase, cytochrome P450) to elicit a significant antitumor response against brain tumors, ovarian, hepatocellular, pancreatic, renal or medullary thyroid carcinomas, breast or prostate cancer and pulmonary metastases. The potential side effects of these MSC-based tumor therapies will also be considered to highlight certain aspects that need to be improved prior to clinical use.