DNA-mediated gene transfer into mammalian cells and cancer.
DNA-mediated introduction of genes into mammalian cells promises to be a powerful method for detecting sequences that control cell growth, confer resistance to toxic drugs, code for surface receptor proteins, or, indeed alter cell phenotype in any clearly defined way. The identification and molecular cloning of human transforming genes from neoplastic cells was enabled by the advances in existing techniques that allow DNA-gene transfer. Some methods of gene transfer which are inefficient today, should not be disregarded in the future. Every study of the genetic basis of cancer at the molecular level is an important step to the ability to influence human cancer cells and suppress their growth in vivo.