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"In the next few months, results will be
presented from the first completed phase III clinical trial with an
oncolytic virus
in cancer treatment. Researchers evaluated a
modified form of the herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), talimogene
laherparepvec
(T-Vec), in patients with metastatic melanoma.
Experts describe the outcome as pivotal not only for T-Vec’s developer
but
also for the roughly 15 additional oncolytic
viruses now in development. “This is the first big phase III, and if the
results
are positive, they will give the field an enormous
boost,” says Alan Melcher, Ph.D., a professor of clinical oncology and
biotherapy at the UK’s Leeds Institute of Molecular
Medicine.
A New Approach
Oncolytic viruses are designed to
replicate in cancer cells until the cells burst, or lyse, spreading
debris that draws an
attack against tumor antigens by the immune
system. In that sense, oncolytic viruses are riding a wave of enthusiasm
for immunotherapy
with vaccines and monoclonal antibodies, which
have generated positive results in melanoma and other cancers. Apart
from T-Vec,
other agents in late-stage development include
Reolysin, a reovirus similar to the cause of the common cold, now in
phase
III for head and neck cancer in combined
protocol with carboplatin and paclitaxel, and JX0594, a recombinant
vaccinia virus
from the smallpox family, in phase IIb with
sorafenib …
