Because of the lack of curative treatment options for most advanced cancers, innovative and exptl. strategies are being developed.One promising therapeutic approach is the delivery of human sodium iodide symporter (hNIS) with oncolytic viruses.HNIS provides the dual utility of therapy and imaging of virus distribution with radionuclides such as iodides or technetium.Although therapy is the ultimate goal, imaging of the virus is also critical because all available biodistribution information concerning oncolytic viruses is currently based on animal models, which may not be fully representative for species-specific viruses such as human adenovirus.We believe our experience with Ad5/3-Δ24-hNIS in comparison with the report on Ad5-yCD/mutTKSR39rep-hNIS reveals several important aspects in virus design.First, low oncolytic potency may be useful for expression of transgene products located on the cell surface.Second, slower virus replication (e.g., in combination with replication-attenuating prodrugs) may allow for better imaging of membrane-associated proteins.In addition, high levels of early transgene expression may be preferable over protracted replication-coupled transgene expression.Also, tumor-selective transgene expression may lead to less robust imaging results than expression in all transduced cells.Finally, the sensitivity of SPECT may require relatively high levels of transgene expression.Thus, Ad5-yCD/mutTKSR39rep-hNIS may represent a useful agent for combining oncolytic virotherapy with prodrug-converting enzymes, imaging, and radionuclide therapy, whereas Ad5/3-Δ24-hNIS type viruses are more suitable for optimal oncolysis and expressing transgenes with systemic or paracrine rather than cell membrane-restricted effects.