I am often asked this question by patients. I believe that gene therapy will be developed first as a potential treatment for patients with the most advanced stages of prostate cancer for whom no other effective therapy is available. Then if gene therapy works in these patients, it will be moved into the realm of treating earlier stages of the disease. Although exciting research is underway in gene therapy and other experimental treatment approaches for prostate cancer, I do not believe it is overly conservative to state that practical application of these new techniques is probably several years away.