Poxviruses as vectors for cancer immunotherapy.

Despite advances in chemotherapy and surgical techniques, patients with cancer often develop local recurrence or metastatic spread. Recent advances in molecular biology, coupled with new insights in tumor immunology, have led to the design of novel antitumor vaccines. Poxviruses are a large family of DNA viruses that provide an effective and safe vector system for vaccine development. The poxvirus strategy has been successfully documented in animal models, and has been used to express both tumor-associated antigens and immune stimulatory molecules. In this review, we focus on recent advances in the use of poxvirus-based vaccines as cancer therapeutic agents.