Oncolytic virotherapy - A novel strategy for cancer therapy

Oncolytic virotherapy is a new modality of cancer treatment which uses competent replicating viruses to destroy cancer cells. This field progressed from earlier observations of accidental viral infections causing remission in many malignancies to virus drugs targeting and killing cancer cells. More competent and specific viruses which attack tumor cells but not healthy cells could be made with advancements in the field of genetic engineering. Studying virus as a drug has benefits of secure handling of all aspects related to this advancing field. In many ways virus given for treatment is comparable to a drug. The virus lies in the grey area of life and death and thus outside the body it is same as an unopened drug. Once inside a biological system, it starts acting targetting specific systems sine qua non as a drug. This review compares virus to a drug and deals with its pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, virus drug interactions and combination virotherapy of this new treatment modality.