Patent ID: 7807147

Claim:
A method for treating a mammal suffering from a tumor that expresses greater amounts of High Affinity Laminin Receptors (HALRs) than normal cells of the same lineage, which method comprises systemically administering to a mammal harboring such a tumor an amount of a replication defective Sindbis virus vector effective to target and treat the tumor, wherein the vector has not been modified to target a tumor-specific cellular determinant, has a preferential affinity for HALRs, a Sindbis virus E2 HALR binding domain, has genes encoding Sindbis proteins nsp1-4 and the vector carries a heterologous anti-tumor gene selected from the group consisting of a suicide gene, an apoptosis-including gene, a tumor suppressor gene, an oncogene antagonist gene, an immunostimulatory gene, a tumor suppressor effector gene, an antisense oligonucleotide-encoding sequence, a ribozyme-encoding sequence, and an immunogenic peptide-encoding sequence.