The use of oncolytic viruses forms an appealing approach for cancer treatment. On the one hand the viruses replicate in, and kill, tumor cells, leading to their intra-tumoral amplification. On the other hand the viral infection will activate virus-directed immune responses, and may trigger immune responses directed against tumor cells and tumor antigens. To date, a wide variety of oncolytic viruses is being developed for use in cancer treatment. While the development of oncolytic viruses has often been initiated by researchers in academia and other public institutions, a large majority of the final product development and the testing of these products in clinical trials is industry led. As a consequence relatively few pre-clinical and clinical studies evaluated different oncolytic viruses in competitive side-by-side preclinical or clinical studies. In this review we will summarize the steps and considerations essential in the development and characterization of oncolytic viruses, and describe our multidisciplinary academic consortium, which involves a dozen departments in three different Dutch universities, collaborating in the development of oncolytic viruses. This consortium has the ambition to develop a small series of oncolytic viruses and to evaluate these in various cancers.

溶瘤病毒的使用形成了一种有吸引力的癌症治疗方法。一方面，病毒在肿瘤细胞中复制并杀死肿瘤细胞，导致它们在肿瘤内扩增。另一方面，病毒感染会激活针对病毒的免疫反应，并可能触发针对肿瘤细胞和肿瘤抗原的免疫反应。迄今为止，正在开发多种溶瘤病毒用于癌症治疗。虽然溶瘤病毒的开发通常由学术界和其他公共机构的研究人员发起，但大部分最终产品的开发和这些产品在临床试验中的测试都是由行业主导的。因此，在竞争性的临床前或临床研究中评估不同溶瘤病毒的临床前和临床研究相对较少。在这篇综述中，我们将总结溶瘤病毒开发和表征中必不可少的步骤和注意事项，并描述我们的多学科学术联盟，该联盟涉及荷兰三所不同大学的十几个部门，合作开发溶瘤病毒。该联盟有志于开发小范围的溶瘤病毒并在各种癌症中评估这些病毒。