Oncolytic virotherapy for multiple myeloma.

Background: Current therapies for multiple myeloma (MM) are not curative, thus novel targeted therapeutics are being developed. One such targeted therapy is oncolytic virotherapy, wherein viruses specifically infect and kill the malignant plasma cells, leaving normal cells intact.

Objective: This review provides an overview of the mechanisms and results of the oncolytic viruses being used to date and discusses the recent advances in the field of virotherapy for MM.

Methods: All papers using viruses to treat MM were identified and screened. Only papers describing replicating, oncolytic viruses were reviewed.

Results/conclusions: Several viruses are currently being developed preclinically and clinically to treat MM, including measles virus, vesicular stomatitis virus, coxsackievirus A21 and vaccinia virus. Other viruses are being used preclinically to purge myeloma cells from autologous bone marrow transplants. Efforts to improve myeloma-specific targeting, avoid the antiviral immune response and evaluate combination therapies for MM are ongoing.