Newcastle Disease Virus As an Oncolytic Agent (Report‪)‬

Introduction Cancer remains a major cause of deaths in humans. Every organs of the body can be affected regardless of age, gender, race/ethnic background, diet, and the environment. Cancer results either due to decreased cell death or increased cell birth (1). In other words, any deregulation in cell cycle or the programmed cell death results in uncontrolled cellular growth (2). Progress has been made in the overall survival of cancer patients after the advent of better imaging and diagnostic techniques, improved understanding of the molecular processes that cause cancer and the additional knowledge of the treatment using combined chemo-and radiotherapy. However, the present therapeutic regimens have not much improved the survival of the patients with metastases. In addition to limited efficacy, chemotherapeutics may also have side effects. The goal of cancer therapy is to promote the death of cancer cells without causing much damage to normal cells (3). A number of viruses with an ability to kill cancer cells while sparing normal cells have been discovered. Such viruses are referred to as oncolytic viruses (4).