Viral Immunotherapy Strategies in Clinical Practice

Viruses are a tool that can be used to help activate the immune system against cancer. Viral genetics may be changed to make a virus less infectious or toxic to patients and more effective at combating cancer. Viruses injected into tumors help treat cancer by directly killing cancer cells as well as helping to activate the immune response in a manner similar to a vaccine. A number of viral therapies are being investigated for research. Currently, talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC) is the only viral therapy approved for clinical use for treating recurrent melanoma. T-VEC is a genetically modified herpes simplex virus that is injected directly into recurrent melanoma lesions in the skin or lymph nodes. A number of additional viral therapies are in development to improve killing of cancer cells and activation of the immune system.