Control of Advanced Ovarian Cancer by Combining An Oncolytic Virus with Chemotherapy

Vaccinia virus is an oncolytic virus which has been shown to infect and lyse tumor cells effectively. Other treatments for cancer include chemotherapeutic agents such as doxorubicin, which although effective have limited side effects. In this experiment, we combined vaccinia virus and doxorubicin to see their synergistic effects in treating ovarian cancer cells in vitro. Our data indicates that the combination of vaccinia virus and doxorubicin efficiently lyses cells. Since the treatment effect is synergistic, a smaller concentration of doxorubicin is required to achieve lyses of cells and thus this can minimize side effects caused by doxorubicin. Future work includes to tests this experiment in vivo. If successful, a combined treatment of vaccinia virus and doxorubicin can be an effective strategy for treating advanced staged ovarian cancer.