It has now been determined that 
antisense therapy which reduces the expression of TRPM-2 provides therapeutic benefits in the treatment of 
cancer. In particular, such 
antisense therapy can be applied in treatment of 
prostate cancer and renal 
cell cancer. Addition of antisense TRPM-2 ODN to prostatic 
tumor cells in vivo is effective for delaying the onset of 
androgen independence. Thus, 
prostate cancer can be treated in an individual suffering from 
prostate cancer by initiating 
androgen-withdrawal to induce 
apoptotic cell death of prostatic 
tumor cells in the individual, and administering to the individual a composition effective to inhibit expression of TRPM-2 by the 
tumor cells, thereby delaying the progression of prostatic tumor cells to an 
androgen-independent state in an individual 
Combined use of antisense TRPM-2 and taxanes synergistically enhances cytotoxic chemosensitivity of androgen-independent 
prostate cancer. In addition, it has also been found that antisense TRPM-2 has beneficial effect for other cancer types. Specifically, antisense TRPM-2 ODN enhances chemosensitivity in human Renal 
cell cancer, a normally chemoresistant 
disease with no active chemotherapeutic agent having an objective response rate higher than 10%. 
Radiation sensitivity is also enhanced when cells expressing TRPM-2 are treated with antisense TRPM-2 ODN. Thus, the antisense TRPM-2 ODNs can be used to enhance 
hormone sensitivity, chemosensitivity and 
radiation sensitivity of a variety of cancer types in which expression of TRPM-2 has been observed.