Table 1. . Recent promising examples of pathogen-mediated tumor therapy.

Pathogen species/strain	Characteristics	Target cancer	Indication
Clostridium novyi-NT	Gram-positive, anaerobic, sporulating	Advanced leiomyosarcoma	Tumor regression after several intratumoral applications of spores
Salmonella typhimurium ssp (VP20009 and Ty21a)	Gram-negative, facultative anaerobe, motile, intracellular	Melanoma, pancreatic cancer	Induction of immune response, tumor colonization, insignificant tumor regression
BCG	Gram-positive, obligate aerobe, nonmotile, intracellular	Bladder cancer	Approved for bladder cancer management as intravesical BCG therapy, proven to be more effective than intravesical chemotherapy
T-VEC	Modified HSV, type 1	Melanoma	T-VEC has recently been approved for the treatment of advanced of melanoma in the USA, Europe and Australia
Listeria monocytogenes (ANZ-100 and CRS-207)	Gram-positive, facultative anaerobic, intracellular	Solid tumors (liver, lung, pancreas, ovary and pancreatic)	Induction of immune response, insignificant tumor regression

T-VEC: Talimogene laherparepvec.