Oncolytic Viruses as Biological Machines to Treat Cancer

The development of Oncolytic Viruses (OVs) for the treatment of cancer has been under development in earnest for the last two decades and recently an engineered herpes virus, called Imlygic, has been approved for the treatment of advanced melanoma. Our group has focussed on the development of OVs based on the pox and rhabdovirus families. We have found that these viruses attack tumours in multiple different ways including direct tumour lysis, anti-vascular activity and perhaps most important, stimulation of anti-tumour immunity. Examples of each of these types of activity from our experience in the laboratory and in the clinic will be presented.