Local and distant immunity induced by intralesional vaccination with an oncolytic herpes virus encoding GM-CSF in patients with stage IIIc and IV melanoma.

Background: An oncolytic herpes simplex virus engineered to replicate selectively in tumor cells and to express granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GMCSF) was tested as a direct intralesional vaccination in melanoma patients. The work reported herein was performed to better characterize the effect of vaccination on local and distant antitumor immunity.

Methods: Metastatic melanoma patients with accessible lesions were enrolled in a multicenter 50-patient phase II clinical trial of an oncolytic herpesvirus encoding GM-CSF (Oncovex(GM-CSF)).