Mol Cancer
-
Novel therapies are necessary to improve outcomes for patients with squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) of the head and neck. Historically, vaccinia virus was administered widely to humans as a vaccine and led to the eradication of smallpox. We examined the therapeutic effects of an attenuated, replication-competent vaccinia virus (GLV-1h68) as an oncolytic agent against a panel of six human head and neck SCC cell lines. ⋯ These results demonstrate significant oncolytic efficacy by an attenuated vaccinia virus for infecting and lysing head and neck SCC both in vitro and in vivo, and support its continued investigation in future clinical trials.