Abstract: At the end of the 20th century, cancer has become one of the major diseases leading to death. So far, no effective treatment and preventive method of cancer have been found. Traditional ther- apies, such as surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy still rank first in the treatment of cancer, but their shortcomings such as severe side effect, inconspicuous curative effect and difficulty for radical cure are evident. With successive discovery of the oncogenes and anti- oncogenes, the cancer gene therapy has a brighter prospect. In this study, development of the cancer treatment and especially researches on the utilization of anti- oncogene technology, since beginning of the 20th century, are reviewed retrospectively.