Table of Contents
Which oncolytic immunotherapy is approved for metastatic melanoma?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of Imlygic (talimogene laherparevec, also known as T-VEC) for the treatment of patients with melanoma lesions in the skin and lymph nodes. This approval is the FDA’s first for an oncolytic virus therapy.
What is oncolytic activity?
An oncolytic virus is a virus that preferentially infects and kills cancer cells. As the infected cancer cells are destroyed by oncolysis, they release new infectious virus particles or virions to help destroy the remaining tumour.
What is oncolytic virotherapy used for?
Oncolytic virotherapy has been recognized as a promising new treatment for cancer in recent years. Oncolytic viruses are genetically modified or naturally occurring viruses that selectively replicate in cancer cells and kill them without damaging normal cells (1).
Is virotherapy safe?
Since then, in pace with the success of tumor immunotherapy, scientists have paid more attention to oncolytic virotherapy. There is growing recognition that oncolytic virotherapy has the potential to be a safe treatment for cancer patients.
Is Virotherapy safe?
Is melanoma a good target for oncolytic virotherapy?
Perhaps because of its well-known susceptibility to immunotherapy, melanoma appears to be a particularly good target for oncolytic virotherapy, responding well not just to HSV-GMCSF (OncoVEX) but also to vaccinia virus therapy22.
What is oncolytic virotherapy?
While the concept of oncolytic virotherapy is not new, advancements in the fields of molecular biology and virology have renewed the interest in using viruses as oncolytic agents. Backed by robust preclinical data, many oncolytic viruses have entered clinical trials.
What is the first ovarian Vehicle (OV) approved for melanoma treatment?
Talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC) is the first OV approved for the treatment of melanoma and presents new challenges as it enters the clinical setting. Several other OVs are at various stages of clinical and pre-clinical development for the treatment of melanoma.
Is T-VEC approved by the FDA for the treatment of melanoma?
Following this Phase III study, T-VEC was approved by the FDA as monotherapy for unresectable melanoma following initial surgery. Puzanov et al. reported the findings of a Phase Ib trial of T-VEC in combination with ipilimumab (a cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA4) checkpoint inhibitor) in patients with advanced melanoma [14].