The new cancer treatment research needs to be accelerated, not only because tumor types and increasing number of patients, but also because traditional therapies, surgical methods, chemotherapy and radiotherapy have certain drawbacks. Oncolytic viruses (OVs) can not only directly kill tumor cells but also activate immune system to exert better effects. However, natural OVs have some defect that limit its further application. In order to overcome its shortcomings, the OVs' vectors was constructed. With advances in molecular biology, OVs could introduced exogenous gene or reduce virulence to improve its function as vectors for treating tumors. At present, OVs such as herpes simplex virus, adenovirus, vaccinia virus, vesicular stomatitis virus, measles virus, mumps virus, and poliovirus have made certain progress in treating tumors as OVs' vectors. The current modification methods of OVs' vectors can be divided into the following types: delete genes harmful to normal cells; insert foreign genes to achieve biological regulation; insert ligand genes that specifically bind to tumor surface receptors. This article reviews modification methods and effect of the aforementioned OVs vectors.