Advances in cell-based delivery of oncolytic viruses as therapy for lung cancer - Overview

Sep 21, 2026

Lung cancer remains difficult to treat due to frequent resistance to (chemo)therapy and high relapse rates, contributing to worldwide cancer mortality. Advancing therapeutic efficacy is a priority, and oncolytic viruses are promising partners for cancer immunotherapy because they both directly lyse malignant cells and trigger immune responses. Systemic delivery faces limitations from host-specific antiviral immunity. This overview highlights carrier-cell strategies that protect oncolytic viruses from neutralization, improve systemic tumor targeting, and support more effective oncolytic virus therapy against lung cancer.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages30

Reading Time1 h 16 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Therapeutic index and targeted delivery goals

Challenges in oncolytic virotherapy (toxicity, tropism)

The need for systemic infection and metastasis control

Advances in cell-based delivery of oncolytic viruses as therapy for lung cancer Giti Esmail Nia, 1,2 Elahe Nikpayam,3 Molood Farrokhi,4 Azam Bolhassani,5 and Ralph Meuwissen2,6 1Faculty of Allied Medicine, Cellular and Molecular Research Centre, Iran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran; 2Department of Basic Oncology, Health Institute of Ege University, Izmir, Turkey; 3Department of Regenerative and Cancer Biology, Albany Medical College, Albany, NY, USA; 4Bioscience Department, University of Skövde, Skövde, Sweden; 5Department of Hepatitis and AIDS, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran; 6Ege University Translational Pulmonary Research Center (EgeSAM), Ege University, Izmir, Turkey Lung cancer’s intractability is enhanced by its frequent resistance to (chemo)therapy and often high relapse rates that make it the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Improvement of therapy efﬁcacy is a crucial issue that might lead to asigniﬁcant advance in the treatment of lung cancer. Oncolytic viruses are desirable combination partners in the developing ﬁeld of cancer immunotherapy due to their direct cytotoxic effects and ability to elicit an immune response. Systemic oncolytic virus administration through intravenous injection should ideally lead to the highest efﬁcacy in oncolytic activity. However, this is often hampered by the prevalence of host-speciﬁc, anti-viral immune responses. One way to achieve more efﬁcient systemic oncolytic virus delivery is through better protection against neutralization by several components of the host immune system. Carrier cells, which can even have innate tumor tropism, have shown their appropriateness as effective vehicles for systemic oncolytic virus infection through circumventing restrictive features of the immune system and can warrant oncolytic virus delivery to tumors. In this overview, we summarize promising results from studies in which carrier cells have shown their usefulness for improved systemic oncolytic virus delivery and better oncolytic virus therapy against lung cancer. INTRODUCTION Designing therapeutic agents with a high therapeutic index (i.e., efﬁcacy against malignant cells) and minimal or no toxicity to normal cells is the main current objective for the development of novel therapies against cancer. Future therapeutic approaches must be more focused and targeted, enabling the delivery of efﬁcient medication dosages to every tumor cell.1 Despite undeniable advancements in cancer treatment, certain cancers resist effective treatment directly or through therapy-induced remission. Although drastically better results may not be possible just now, incremental improvements are predicted with innovative or enhanced therapies using immunotherapy, cell-based medicines, oncolytic virotherapy, and hybrid techniques thereof.2 Lung tumors are among the most recalcitrant solid cancers and, although the last decade has seen a steady development of immunotherapeutic approaches against lung cancer such as immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) becoming ﬁrst-line standard ther- apies alone or in combination with long-established chemo-and radiotherapies,3 clinical course and prognosis of especially advanced lung cancer remains rather poor (Table 1) . The need for new or better therapies for lung cancer is urgent and one way to alleviate this necessity could be the application of oncolytic virotherapy. Intriguingly, the ﬁrst clinical observations of occasional viral infections that lead to partial and sometimes complete tumor regression in cancer patients date back more than a hundred years.11 These initial observations were then pursued by more speciﬁed clinical and preclinical experiments with various well-deﬁned viral strains.12 Although results clearly showed the potential of virotherapy, since a distinct class of now-called oncolytic viruses (OVs) did infect and lyse cancer cells much more efﬁciently than healthy tissues.13 But there the problem arose. Most early oncolyti

FAQs

Why is improving lung cancer therapy considered urgent?

Lung cancer often resists (chemo)therapy and has high relapse rates, leading to poor outcomes, especially in advanced disease.

What makes oncolytic viruses promising for lung cancer immunotherapy?

They can directly cytotoxically kill cancer cells and also stimulate an immune response.

What limits systemic oncolytic virus therapy?

Host-specific anti-viral immune responses can neutralize viruses and reduce systemic oncolytic activity.

Sep 21, 2026

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