Combining oncolytic viruses with immune cell therapy as treatments for cancer: OV, CAR T-cell, and NK combinations

Two of the most promising anticancer therapies to emerge in the past 20 years are oncolytic viral therapy and engineered immune cell therapy. Oncolytic viral therapy (OV) relies on oncolytic viruses, which specifically infect and kill cancers and also activate local and systemic immune signals to generate a lasting immune response to cancer. Talimogene laherparepvec, a herpes simplex OV, has been approved for use in the treatment of melanoma. Other OVs are being tested in various cancers, and target cancer by direct killing and by amplifying local cytokine and checkpoint signals to attract effector immune cells to tumor sites. The field of engineered immune cell therapies has also seen much progress. Chimeric antigen receptor T cells and natural killer cells designed to target many tumor antigens are in human trials. One directed against B-cell malignancies has been approved for use as human medicine. This review summarizes some of the emerging work seeking to combine OVs and immune cell therapy. This combination therapy is an exciting area with the promise of harnessing both innate and adaptive immunity for effective cancer treatment.