A revolutionary new “melanoma vaccine” is now available in Australia, offering hope to patients and their families across the country.
The therapy, known as talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC), carries a genetically modified version of herpes simplex virus type 1, and has been given the tick of approval by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) for use after the completion of a phase 3 clinical trial.
While the new treatment may sound too good to be true, Rodney Sinclair, professor of medicine at the University of Melbourne and director of dermatology at Epworth Hospital, reassures the Medical Journal of Australia of its incredible abilities.
“This is not a ‘me too’ drug. It is in essence the first ever melanoma vaccine,” the expert says.
“Melanoma is a terrible disease; it cripples people in lots of exquisite ways. Hopefully, [talimogene] is the first drug in a new class of therapeutic modalities.”
According to MJA Insight, Talimogene is an “oncolytic immunotherapy indicated for the treatment of cutaneous, subcutaneous and nodal melanoma lesions that cannot be surgically removed.”
Once injected into a lesion, the modified virus will replicate within the melanoma cells before ultimately killing them.
“This treatment is a great hope for the future – the fact that you can genetically modify a virus to replicate in cancer cells is exciting [and] trials have shown that it does prolong survival,” Long told MJA Insight.
Across 64 centres in the US, UK, Canada and South Africa, a trial of 436 patients with inoperable stage III or IV melanoma was conducted. One initial dose was injected, followed by another three weeks later, and then again every following two weeks.
“The median time to response is 4 months. During this time, half of the injected tumours will have grown 25% in size, before they ultimately regress,” says Georgina Long, professor of melanoma medical oncology and translational research at the Melanoma Institute of Australia.
The researchers found that T-VEC treatment upped the overall survival rate – with Long saying that one-third of patients with advanced melanoma now survived 5 years after diagnosis, adding she “wouldn’t be surprised if it gets to 50%”.
“What we’re doing is pushing back survival – the median time to death from metastasis was 9 months, now we’ve pushed it to 3–4 years,” adds Professor Sinclair.
Find out more in the video player below.
