In Vivo Tumor Growth Inhibition

In addition to the average tumor volumes obtained from the in vivo V937 viral kinetic experiment, tumor size data from two publications (Shafren et al., 2004; Au et al., 2005) were compiled for the analysis. Experimental designs are detailed in Table 1.

In the studies described by Shafren et al., 2004, data were available from three experimental conditions: 1) single i. t. dose of V937 in mice bearing one tumor lesion, 2) single i. t. dose of V937 in one tumor lesion of mice bearing two tumor lesions, and 3) single i. v. dose of V937 in mice bearing two tumor lesions. In all cases, non-obese diabetic (NOD) SCID female mice were subcutaneously (s.c.) injected with 2 × 10⁵ SK-Mel-28 cells in one or two flanks, and single injection of phosphate buffered saline (PBS) or V937 (10–10⁵ TCID₅₀) was administered when tumors reached a predefined volume. Tumor volume was calculated using the formula for a spheroid. Tumor volumes, were recorded at regular intervals, and average tumor volume were digitalized for analysis.

In vivo growth rate of SK-Mel-28 in NOD-SCID mice following implant of 10⁶ cells in one flank from Au et al., 2005 was combined with control groups in SK-Mel-28 study from Shafren et al., 2004 and used for model building.

In addition to SK-Mel-28 cell line, data from control and treated animals inoculated with ME4405 cells were available from Au et al., 2005. This information was used as validation (see Experimental data section of Supplementary Methods and Results for detailed description of experimental design).