Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Cancer: Clinical Challenges and Opportunities

Figure 2

Strategies of targeted-cancer therapy. MSCs have been utilized as vehicles to deliver anticancer treatments due to their tumor-tropic property. Genetically modified MSCs expressing suicide genes (e.g., TK gene) have been used to treat cancer effectively in vitro and in vivo through inducing cell death. Additionally, MSCs can be induced to express anticancer proteins (e.g., IL-2 or IFN-β), to generate prodrug activating enzymes or to deliver oncolytic viruses and the active drug for tumor-targeting. Simultaneously, MSCs-derived exosomes also suppressed tumor growth.