Reduction of angiogenesis in chorioallantoic membrane xenografted hepatocellular carcinomas by treatment with a decorin-expressing herpes simplex virus vector

Decorin is a proteoglycan that suppresses tumor growth and angiogenesis. We studied whether our recently constructed decorin-expressing herpes simplex virus (HSV) vector can reduce angiogenesis in xenografted liver carcinoma cells in the chorioallantoic membrane model. The vascularized tumors were treated with an overlay dose of our vector. The results show that the treatment reduced angiogenesis in the tumors by 60% (p = 0.005) four days after treatment, suggesting that decorin-expressing HSV vectors are a promising strategy for novel cancer therapies.