Oncolytic virotherapy for thyroid cancer: will it translate to the clinic?

Observations that viruses can induce tumor regression date back to the beginning of the 20th century [1] and the use of viruses for cancer treatment has been theorized since then ; however only in the late 1990s advancement in viral manipulation technologies together with a better understanding of the molecular alterations in cancer cells allowed the development of oncolytic viruses (virotherapy). So far, dozen of viruses have been tested for their oncolytic activity. Oncolytic viruses (OVs) have several potential benefits as anticancer therapeutics: tumor-selective replication, amplification of the input dose, efficacy independent of resistance to current anticancer therapies. OVs do not contribute to the generation of neoplastic cell clones or treatment resistance [2].

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