The promise of oncolytic viral therapy for the treatment of peritoneal surface malignancies

This chapter provides an alternative approach to peritoneal surface malignancies that utilizes the cytolytic effects of oncolytic viruses while leveraging their impact on antitumor immunity. Many groups to date have studied oncolytic viruses as promising anticancer agents due to their ability to preferentially kill malignant cells while sparing normal cells. During oncolytic viral infections, normal cells produce interferon, which activates protective antiviral signaling in surrounding cells. Oncolytic viral therapy has grown as a potential treatment for a number of histologies. As with the vast majority of oncolytic viruses, Newcastle disease virus (NDV) selectively replicates in human cancer cells that have developed defects in the interferon signaling pathway. The intravenous delivery of NDV was optimized to include a 3-hour infusion for the first dose compared with the 10- and 30-minute infusions administered in the aforementioned trial with subsequent doses infused over 1 hour.