Expediting Viral Therapies For Cancers To the Clinic.

Abstract

The first immuno-oncolytic virus specifically designed for cancer was an engineered herpesvirus created in 1991 by Bob Martuza and his colleagues and was directed at the uniformly fatal malignant glioma.1 Since then, many viruses have been engineered and tested against this disease, with most based biologically on the great difference in cellular replication of malignant gliomas compared to nonreplicating neighboring neurons. Two and a half decades later, we have come to a very exciting period in the development of engineered viruses as treatment for cancer in general, and for gliomas in particular.