Melanoma, an immunogenic tumor, is the first indication where oncolytic viruses are now becoming part of clinical practice. ONCOS-102, a transgened adenovirus, has shown to act as a primer of relevant tumor targeting immune cells both in preclinical and clinical melanoma studies.
Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a chronic disease resulting in myeloid cell expansion through expression of the BCR-ABL1 fusion transcript. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) have significantly increased survival of patients with CML, and deep responders may consider stopping the treatment. However, more than 50% of patients relapse and restart TKI, subsequently suffering unknown toxicity.
Malignant melanoma is an aggressive type of skin cancer whose incidence is increasing globally. Although surgery is effective in early stage melanoma, patients with advanced melanoma only have a 20% 5-year survival rate. Hence, combinations of existing and new immunotherapy technologies and immunotherapeutic agents are being evaluated. ONCOS-102 is an oncolytic adenovirus armed with human GM-CSF and an Ad5/3 chimeric capsid.
