utilizing oncolytic poxviruses: a promising approach in cancer treatment

One of the dilemmas of today s societies is the prevalence of cancer and its increasing rate. considering the challenges in treating most cancers and dealing with drug resistance, it is necessary to use new and effective methods. also, immunotherapy with higher efficacy and less side effects in cancer patients compared to chemotherapy and radiotherapy has shown the most promising results in various clinical trials. oncolytic viruses are a new class of immunotherapy that are able to selectively lyse the cell and destroy it. the aim of this study is to investigate the oncolytic properties of poxviruses in cancer treatment. this study is a review study by searching scientific databases such as scopus, pubmed, and embase from 2016 to 2024 by using the keywords oncolytic viral therapy, poxvirus, immunotherapy, cancer, 69 articles related to inclusion criteria were extracted and then analyzed. the results of the studies indicated that the use of poxviruses can activate the host s innate immune system well to create an anti-tumor response to destroy it. also, wild type virus and genetically modified viruses were investigated to investigate the oncolytic behavior. and its promising oncolytic nature has been proven in various clinical trials. recently, various and effective methods have been used in the treatment of various cancers, of which immunotherapy is one of them. using several developed engineered viruses that encode the desired genes for selective penetration into tumor cells and can produce good antitumor activity. however, more studies are needed in this field to increase the effectiveness of treatment.