Additive cytotoxic effect of apoptin and chemotherapeutic agents paclitaxel and etoposide on human tumour cells.

Gene therapy experiments in animal models have shown that apoptin expression results in tumour regression without any significant side effects. Therefore, apoptin is regarded as a potential anticancer drug for clinical applications. In this study, we analysed whether chemotherapeutic agents combined with apoptin treatment could result in enhanced cytotoxicity in human tumour cell cultures.