Awaiting a Moment of Truth for Oncolytic Viruses

Abstract

"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 …

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