Progress of oncolytic viruses in sarcomas

Oncolytic virotherapy has shown exciting promise for the treatment of many types of solid tumors. Pediatric sarcomas are an aggressive type of pediatric malignancy known to show limited responsiveness to current therapies, leading to unacceptably high morbidity and mortality. Oncolytic viruses have only recently been used for the treatment of this challenging cancer, and results have been encouraging. Five clinical trials are currently open evaluating the use of oncolytic viruses in pediatric malignancies. Advances in genetic engineering of the viruses include improving the ability of the virus to infect tumor cells, engineering the virus with transgenes which improve the virus' ability to kill tumor cells and manipulating the virus to enhance concomitantly administered therapies. Further understanding of the antiviral immune response and a viral induced anti-tumor immune response will permit a maximization of oncolytic virotherapy.