The progression in therapy of tumor with the human sodium iodide symporter

The sodium iodide symporter (NIS) is an intrinsic plasma membrane protein that mediates active iodide transport into the thyroid gland and several extrathyroidal tissues, in particular the lactating mammary gland. Cloning and molecular characterization of the NIS have allowed the investigation of its key role in thyroid physiology as well as its potential pathophysiological and therapeutic implications in benign and malignant thyroid diseases. Similarly, elucidating the mechanisms underlying the regulation of NIS in lactating mammary gland and breast cancer, in which more than 80% of cases express endogenous NIS, may lead to findings that have novel implications for pathophysiology and therapy. Two approaches may, in the future, pave the way to extend the use of radioiodide treatment to thyroid cancer and nonthyroidal cancer. One is based on the reinduction of endogenous NIS expression in thyroid and breast cancer by targeting the main mechanisms involving tumoral transformation and dedifferentiation to treat the tumor. The other is based on the application of NIS as a novel cytoreductive gene therapy strategy. NIS offers the unique advantage that it can be used both as a reporter and as a therapeutic gene, so that it is possible to image, monitor, and treat the tumor with radioiodide, just as in differentiated thyroid cancer.