The purpose of the present study was to determine the therapeutic potential of combining radiotherapy with tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha-based gene therapy in the human prostate cancer PC-3 xenograft. PC-3 cells are highly resistant to TNF-alpha-induced cytotoxicity in vitro. A modest enhancement of radiation killing was observed with the addition of TNF-alpha in clonogenic survival assays. Combined treatment with Ad. Egr-TNF, a replication-deficient adenovirus modified to express TNF-alpha following the exposure of infected cells to ionizing radiation (40 Gy administered at 5 Gy per fraction) in vivo, resulted in increased tumor control, as defined by a reduction of tumor volume, when compared with treatment with Ad. Egr-TNF alone or with radiation alone (P<. 03). The improvement in tumor control was achieved without increasing acute normal tissue damage when compared with tissue injury from radiation alone. The results of these studies support further development and clinical application of genetic radiotherapy for human prostate cancer.