Oncolytic Viruses: The Best is Yet to Come.
Oncolytic viruses are a promising anti-cancer platform, achieving significant pre-clinical and clinical milestones in recent years. A full arsenal of selective, safe, and effective viruses has been developed with some emerging pre-clinical research focusing on optimizing these therapies in the face of remaining challenges, both in the bloodstream and in the tumour microenvironment. Herein we discuss the recent progress in pre-clinical virotherapy research to address these challenges, with special focus on innovative strategies that seek to complement the current strengths of virotherapy, ensuring an optimal multi-faceted attack on cancer. This review highlights the research areas that we believe provide the most potential to increase the efficacy of this exciting biotherapy platform: cell carriers, tumour vascular destruction, microenvironment modulation, combination therapies, and virus-mediated anti-tumour immune responses.
Center for Innovative Cancer Therapeutics, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
Chantal G
CG
Lemay
Center for Innovative Cancer Therapeutics, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON, Canada.|Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
Brian A
BA
Keller
Center for Innovative Cancer Therapeutics, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
Robert E
RE
Edge
Division of Gastroenterology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
Masato
M
Abei
Center for Innovative Cancer Therapeutics, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON, Canada.|Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
John C
JC
Bell
D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000628:therapy*; D050130:Oncolytic Virotherapy; D050504:Oncolytic Viruses / Q000235:genetics*
Cancer therapy; combination therapy; immunity; oncolytic viruses; tumour microenvironment; virotherapy