[Gene therapy applied to melanoma].

Cellular immunotherapy combined with genetic therapy, a new therapeutic approach to melanoma, is aimed at destroying the tumour by stimulating the organism's immune defences (indirect method) or by transfecting genes directly into the tumoural cells (direct methods). The first method is the most widely used for melanoma. Lymphocytes extracted from the tumour are transfected with genes capable of increasing their cytotoxic action in situ when reinjected (TNF, interleukin 2, interferon gamma). Likewise, immunostimulation by genetic therapy can be applied to tumour cells with transfection, notably cytokins or genes inducing antigen expression on the susceptible surface to modify the tumour cells' immunogeneicity. This method uses oligonucleotide nonsense sequences with suicide genes replacing a suppressor gene. Clinical trials for genetic therapy on melanoma are still in the pilot stage. This clinical evaluation must take into account the patient's quality of life and treatment costs.