The invention provides a method for suppressing tumor cell growth in a patient, comprising: administering to the patient an effective amount of an expression vector including a polynucleotide encoding a tumor suppressor protein having SEQ ID NO: 1 under conditions wherein the expression vector incorporates itself into the tumor cell genome and inhibits cell proliferation or induces cell death.The invention further provides a method for a method for inhibiting tumor cell proliferation in a tumor cell population comprising: administering to the tumor cell population an amount of a composition comprising a tumor suppressor protein having SEQ ID NO: 1 effective to inhibit tumor cell proliferation therein.