Tumour-fighting virus homes in

摘要

Clinical advances in cancer research are often slow to materialize, in part because the efficacy of a treatment has to be balanced against its potential toxicity to normal tissues. Infection of tumours with oncolytic (cancer-killing) viruses has been explored as a new type of treatment that is not cross-resistant with approved cancer therapies and, being target-specific, may have fewer toxic side effects. On page 99 of this issue, Breitbach et aV describe a phase I clinical trial in which an intravenously delivered oncolytic poxvirus was capable of replicating selectively in metastasized tumours. This is a milestone in the development of an effective oncolytic agent for systemic administration.