Modeling the Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Oncolytic Viruses and Radiotherapy as a Treatment for Cancer

Abstract

Virotherapy is a novel treatment for cancer, which may be delivered as a single agent or in combination with other therapies. Research studies indicated that the combination of viral therapy and radiation therapy has synergistic antitumor effects in in vitro and in vivo. In this paper, we proposed two models in the form of partial differential equations to investigate the spatiotemporal dynamics of tumor cells under virotherapy and radiovirotherapy. We first presented a virotherapy model and solved it numerically for different values of the parameters related to the oncolytic virus, which is administered continuously. The results showed that virotherapy alone cannot eradicate cancer, and thus, we extended the model to include the effect of radiotherapy in combination with virotherapy. Numerical investigations were carried out for three modes of radiation delivery which are constant, decaying, and periodic. The numerical results showed that radiovirotherapy leads to complete eradication of the tumor provided that the delivery of radiation is constant. Moreover, there is an optimal timing for administering radiation, as well as an ideal dose that improves the results of the treatment. The virotherapy in our model is given continuously over a certain period of time, and bolus treatment (where virotherapy is given in cycles) could be considered and compared with our results.

Modeling dynamics of cancer virotherapy with immune response

“…Moreover, these models consider the change of cell densities regarding time only. Spatiotemporal dynamics of tumor cells under virotherapy and radiovirotherapy treatments can be found in [11,12], where partial differential equations are involved. Also, more general biological models involving the diffusion of cell densities are presented in [13][14][15].…”

Efficacy and Safety of Recombinant Human Adenovirus Type 5 (H101) in Persistent, Recurrent, or Metastatic Gynecologic Malignancies: A Retrospective Study

“…These outcomes are in line with research showing that OVs block DNA damage repair, sensitizing infected tumor cells to radiation and enhancing viral replication ( 22 ). Another in vivo test demonstrated that constant radiation combined with virotherapy eliminates cancer better than decay radiation and external beam radiation ( 31 ). In comparison, our study subjected 5 of 13 LC patients to combination H101 + brachytherapy at a relatively high radiation dose (four cases received interstitial brachytherapy).…”

Oncolytic Viruses: Newest Frontier for Cancer Immunotherapy

“…Oncolytic VACV, HSV, VSV, and adenovirus have shown therapeutic benefits combined with RT [ 100 , 101 , 102 ]. The combination of RT with OV has synergistic antitumor effects, and can be particularly effective against aggressive tumors for which other therapies failed [ 103 ]. For example, OV Delta-24-RGD in combination with RT was tested in pediatric high-grade gliomas (pHGG) and diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPGs) models [ 104 ].…”