Oncolytic virotherapy and the current approaches in veterinary medicine

Abstract

Cancer has an increasing incidence worldwide in humans and animals. In addition to traditional treatments such as surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, there is a search for new treatment strategies for cancer treatment. Oncolytic virotherapy arouses great interest in human medicine with the development of biotechnology and increasing knowledge about virus-cell interactions in recent years. Many in-vivo and in-vitro studies have led to the development of a United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved, genetically modified oncolytic viral therapy. Based on the studies in human medicine, some clinical trials have also been carried out with oncolytic virotherapy in veterinary medicine. But the studies in cats and dogs are very limited. This review aims to compare the development of oncolytic virotherapy in human and veterinary medicine with current studies and to draw attention to the fact that virotherapy can be used as a treatment option for various tumoral diseases in veterinary medicine in the future.