Talimogene Laherparepvec (T-VEC): A Review of the Recent Advances in Cancer Therapy

Abstract

The landscape of melanoma treatment has undergone a dramatic revolution in the past decade. The use of oncolytic viruses (OVs) represents a novel therapeutic approach that can selectively infect and lyse tumor cells and induce local and systemic antitumor immune responses. As the first OV approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for melanoma treatment, talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC), a genetically modified herpes simplex virus (HSV), has shown promising therapeutic effects in the treatment of advanced melanoma, both as a monotherapy or in combination with other immunotherapies, such as the immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). With proven efficacy, T-VEC has been evaluated against a variety of other cancer types in a clinical trial setting. In this article, we will provide a review on OVs and the application of T-VEC in melanoma monotherapy and combination therapy. In addition, we will review the recent progress of T-VEC application in other cutaneous cancer types. Moreover, we will briefly describe our experience of T-VEC therapy at City of Hope, aiming to provide more insight for expanding its future application.

Keywords: T-VEC; clinical trials; combinational therapy; cutaneous cancers; immune checkpoint inhibitors; immunotherapy; melanoma; oncolytic virotherapy; targeted therapy.

Figure 1

Map of City of Hope locations in Southern California. Teardrop with “H” represents COH main campus at Duarte, California, where the T-VEC treatment is performed. Other red teardrops represent 18 out of 27 campuses in City of Hope.