The invention provides promoters inducible by reactive oxygen species (ROS), capable of driving the expression of a gene of interest, particularly in a tumor cell. More particularly, it refers to promoters inducible by reactive oxygen species, that may be used to drive the expression of a gene of interest, such as a therapeutic gene, or a reporter gene for use in image diagnosis. The promoters comprise at least a fragment of a promoter sequence responsive to said reactive oxygen species, and corresponding to a gene highly expressed in cancer cells, wherein the fragment of the promoter sequence responsive to reactive oxygen species (ROS) is selected from the group of: the VE element of the VEGF promoter, the E6 element of the promoter of the EGR-1 gene, the MMP-1 element and a chimeric promoter containing an E6 element and a VE element. It also provides vectors carrying a human therapeutic or non therapeutic gene of interest, operably linked to said promoter sequence and compositions comprising the same.