A genetically engineered herpes virus can halt the progression of skin cancer by killing cancer cells and sparking the immune system into action against tumours, a landmark clinical trial has shown. 
 
 It is the first time that a phase III trial of viral immunotherapy has definitively shown benefit for patients with cancer. 
 
 The trial was led in the UK by researchers at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, and involved 64 research centres worldwide including the University of Oxford. 
 
 Researchers randomised 436 patients with aggressive, inoperable malignant melanoma to receive either an injection of the viral therapy, called Talimogene Laherparepvec, or a control immunotherapy. 
 
 Some 16.3 per cent of the group given Talimogene Laherparepvec -- known as T-VEC -- showed a durable treatment response of more than six months, compared with 2.1 per cent given the control treatment. 
 
 Some patients had a response extending past three years, a mark oncologists often use as a proxy for cure in immunotherapy. 
 
 Importantly, responses to treatment were most pronounced in patients with less advanced cancers (stage IIIB, IIIC, IVM1a) and those who had yet to receive any treatment -- underlining the potential benefits of T-VEC as a first-line treatment for metastatic melanoma which cannot be surgically removed. 
 
 Patients with stage III and early stage IV melanoma treated with T-VEC -- a total of 163 people -- lived an average of 41 months. This compared with an average survival of 21.5 months in the 66 earlier-stage patients who received the control immunotherapy. 
 
 The trial was funded by the manufacturer of T-VEC, Amgen, and is published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. 
 
 T-VEC is a modified form of herpes simplex virus type-1 which multiplies inside cancer cells and bursts them from within. It has been genetically engineered to produce a molecule called GM-CSF, which stimulates the immune system to attack and destroy the tumour. 
 
 T-VEC is one of a new wave of virus-based drugs to show benefits in cancer trials, and is now the first to do so in a major randomised, controlled phase III trial. 
 
 The virus has been modified to remove two key genes, called ICP34.5 and ICP47, so that it can't replicate within healthy cells. Normal cells detect and destroy T-VEC before it can cause damage -- but it replicates easily in cancer cells because their infection defences are compromised by genetic errors. 
 
 UK trial leader Professor Kevin Harrington, Professor of Biological Cancer Therapies at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and Honorary Consultant at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said: 
 
 "There is increasing excitement over the use of viral treatments like T-VEC for cancer, because they can launch a two-pronged attack on tumours - both killing cancer cells directly and marshalling the immune system against them. And because viral treatment can target cancer cells specifically, it tends to have fewer side-effects than traditional chemotherapy or some of the other new immunotherapies. 
 
 "Our study showed that T-VEC can deliver a significant, durable benefit for people with melanoma. It is encouraging that the treatment had such a clear benefit for patients with less advanced cancers - ongoing studies are evaluating if it can become a first-line treatment for more aggressive melanomas and advanced disease." 
 
 Professor Paul Workman, Chief Executive of The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said: 
 
 "We may normally think of viruses as the enemies of mankind, but it's their very ability to specifically infect and kill human cells that can make them such promising cancer treatments. In this case we are harnessing the ability of an engineered virus to kill cancer cells and stimulate an immune response. It's exciting to see the potential of viral treatment realised in a phase III trial, and there is hope that therapies like this could be even more effective when combined with targeted cancer drugs to achieve long term control and cure." 
 
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 Notes to editors 
 
 For more information contact Henry French on 020 7153 5582 / henry.french@icr.ac.uk. For enquiries out of hours, please call 07595 963 613. 
 
 The Institute of Cancer Research, London, is one of the world's most influential cancer research institutes. Scientists and clinicians at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) are working every day to make a real impact on cancer patients' lives. Through its unique partnership with The Royal Marsden Foundation Trust and 'bench-to-bedside' approach, the ICR is able to create and deliver results in a way that other institutions cannot. Together the two organisations are rated in the top four cancer centres globally. 
 
 The ICR has an outstanding record of achievement dating back more than 100 years. It provided the first convincing evidence that DNA damage is the basic cause of cancer, laying the foundation for the now universally accepted idea that cancer is a genetic disease. Today it leads the world at isolating cancer-related genes and discovering new targeted drugs for personalised cancer treatment. 
 
 As a college of the University of London, the ICR provides postgraduate higher education of international distinction. It has charitable status and relies on support from partner organisations, charities and the general public. 

 A genetically engineered version of a virus that normally causes cold sores shows real promise for treating skin cancer, say researchers. 
 
 The modified herpes virus is harmless to normal cells but when injected into tumours it replicates and releases substances to help fight the cancer. 
 
 Trial results published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology show the therapy could lengthen survival by years - but only for some melanoma patients. 
 
 The treatment is not yet licensed. 
 
 Similar "immunotherapy" treatments for melanoma are already available in the US and in Europe, but researchers believe T-Vec would be a welcome addition to these. 
 
 Media caption Professor Richard Marais explains how the cold sore virus could treat skin cancer 
 
 It would also be the first melanoma treatment that uses a virus. 
 
 The latest study is the largest ever randomised trial of an anti-cancer virus and involved 436 patients from 64 centres in the US, the UK, Canada and South Africa who had inoperable malignant melanoma. 
 
 UK trial leader Prof Kevin Harrington, from the Institute of Cancer Research, London, said: "There is increasing excitement over the use of viral treatments like T-Vec for cancer, because they can launch a two-pronged attack on tumours - both killing cancer cells directly and marshalling the immune system against them. 
 
 "And because viral treatment can target cancer cells specifically, it tends to have fewer side effects than traditional chemotherapy or some of the other new immunotherapies." 
 
 More research 
 
 Dr Hayley Frend, science information manager at Cancer Research UK, said: "Previous studies have shown T-Vec could benefit some people with advanced skin cancer, but this is the first study to prove an increase in survival. 
 
 "The next step will be to understand why only some patients respond to T-Vec, in order to help better identify which patients might benefit from it." 
 
 Analysis 
 
 Although it has not yet been licensed, doctors are excited about the very real prospect of a brand new type of treatment for advanced melanoma - and, in the future, possibly other cancers too. 
 
 The idea of using viruses to enter and kill cancerous cells has been gathering scientific pace and kudos. 
 
 This latest study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology is the largest ever randomised trial of an anti-cancer virus and provides tantalising evidence that the treatment concept could soon be moved into the clinic, after decades of work in the lab. 
 
 Researchers now want to do more studies to identify which patients might benefit from the treatment and whether it should be used alongside other melanoma drugs that are already approved. 
 
 Drug regulators will be watching closely and will soon make a final decision about T-Vec. 
 
 Earlier this year an immunotherapy drug, pembrolizumab, became the first treatment "fast-tracked" for NHS patients in England with advanced melanoma, under a new government scheme. 
 
 Drugs approved through the Early Access to Medicines scheme, launched in England in April 2014, have been scrutinised by regulators weighing up the risks and benefits. 
 
 Melanoma is the sixth most common cancer in the UK and kills more than 2,000 people in Britain each year. 
 
 Damage to the skin by the sun's harmful UV rays increases your risk of developing this cancer. 

 ‘Virotherapy’ uses modified herpes virus to attack melanoma cells and has potential to overcome cancer even when disease has spread throughout the body 
 
 Patients with aggressive skin cancer have been treated successfully using a drug based on the herpes virus, in a trial that could pave the way for a new generation of cancer treatments. 
 
 The findings mark the first positive phase 3 trial results for cancer “virotherapy”, where one disease is harnessed and used to attack another. If approved, the drug, called T-VEC, could be more widely available for cancer patients by next year, scientists predicted. 
 
 Crucially, the therapy has the potential to overcome cancer even when the disease has spread to organs throughout the body, offering hope in future to patients who have been faced with the bleakest prognosis. 
 
 Kevin Harrington, professor of biological cancer therapies at the Institute of Cancer Research London, who led the work, said: “This is the big promise of this treatment. It’s the first time a virotherapy has been shown to be successful in a phase 3 trial.” 
 
 In the trial, involving more than 400 patients with aggressive melanoma, one in four patients responded to the treatment, and 16% were still in remission after six months. About 10% of the patients treated had “complete remission”, with no detectable cancer remaining - considered a cure if the patient is still cancer-free five years after diagnosis. 
 
 The results are especially encouraging, Harrington said, because all the patients had inoperable, relapsed or metastatic melanoma with no conventional treatment options available to them. “They had disease that ranged from dozens to hundreds of deposits of melanoma on a limb all the way to patients where cancer had spread to the lungs and liver,” he said. 
 
 The treatment works by mounting a two-pronged attack on cancer. It is based on a genetically “neutered” version of the herpes virus, which has been modified to stop it producing the protein that allows it to infect healthy cells. Cancer cells then produce their own version of the blocked protein, filling in the deficit and allowing the modified virus to thrive within cancerous tissue. 
 
 The herpes multiplies vigorously inside the cancer cells until they burst open, spilling the virus into the surrounding area, triggering a secondary immune reaction against the tumour. 
 
 Professor Paul Workman, Chief Executive of The Institute of Cancer Research, said: “We may normally think of viruses as the enemies of mankind, but it’s their very ability to specifically infect and kill human cells that can make them such promising cancer treatments. In this case we are harnessing the ability of an engineered virus to kill cancer cells and stimulate an immune response.” 
 
 Once the immune system has been nudged into action by the T-VEC treatment, it appears to develop an enhanced ability to detect and attack cancer throughout the body. Scientists are not sure why this happens, but the latest trial confirmed the effect, showing that even secondary tumours that had not been infected by the virus shrank or disappeared. 
 
 “It’s like an unmasking of the cancer,” said Harrington. “The patient’s immune system wakes up and attacks the cancer cells wherever they are in the body.” 
 
 The therapy is given by injection and in the trial patients received a dose every two weeks for up to 18 months. The side-effects tend to be far milder than chemotherapy drugs, with patients typically experiencing mild flu-like symptoms after the first few injections. 
 
 Dr Hayley Frend, science information manager at Cancer Research UK, said: “Using a virus to both kill cancer cells and nudge the immune system into attacking them is exciting. Previous studies have shown T-VEC could benefit some people with advanced skin cancer, but this is the first study to prove an increase in survival.” 
 
 Patients with stage III and early stage IV melanoma treated with T-VEC (163 people in total) lived an average of 41 months, the trial found. This compared with an average survival of 21.5 months in the 66 earlier-stage patients who received the control treatment. 
 
 Rather than the traditional clinical trial, where a drug is compared to a placebo, the control group were given a protein designed to stimulate the immune response against cancer, but without the virus component of the treatment. 
 
 The drug, developed by the company Amgen, has been submitted to both the FDA and the European Medicines Agency, and could be available to US patients by next year if approved, and in Europe soon afterwards. Similar treatments are also being trialled for head and neck cancers 
 
 More than 13,000 people are diagnosed with malignant melanoma skin cancer each year in the UK, and about 88% of patients survive for more than five years. However, the survival rates for aggressive forms of skin cancer and when the cancer has spread to other organs are far worse. 
 
 The possibility that viruses could be harnessed to tackle cancer was first raised in the early twentieth century, when doctors noted that cancer patients who caught measles, hepatitis or glandular fever occasionally underwent a temporary recovery. During an early trial in 1949, patients with Hodgkin’s lymphoma were injected with viral hepatitis. One patient died and 13 contracted hepatitis, but seven experienced temporary remission. 
 
 Genetic engineering, which has allowed scientists to create safe versions of natural viruses has led to a revival of the concept, and trials of virotherapies based on infections including herpes, measles and vaccinia (which was used in the smallpox vaccine) are currently underway. 
 
 The findings are published today in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. 

 In a few months time, those suffering from skin cancer may find an unlikely hero in their treatment regimen: herpes. A modified version of the Herpes Simplex 1 virus (known for causing cold sores and some cases of genital herpes) called T-Vec has successfully been used to treat melanoma in a phase III clinical trial. That means it's just waiting for a final okay from the FDA before the Amgen product can hit the market. The results of the trial were published Tuesday in Journal of Clinical Oncology. 
 
 [Personalized cancer vaccines have already helped treat three patients] 
 
 In a study of 436 patients with inoperable melanoma, Talimogene Laherparepvec had 16.3 percent of patients showing results at the six-month mark, compared to 2.1 percent taking the control therapy. Some patients were continuing to respond to T-VEC three years later. 
 
 Patients with stage III and early stage IV melanoma treated with T-VEC (163 people in all) lived an average of 41 months. This compared with an average survival of 21.5 months in the 66 earlier-stage patients who received the control immunotherapy. Immunotherapy, where agents are used to boost a body's natural defense against a tumor, are already the best treatments against melanoma. But this is the first time a modified virus has been successful in carrying out that treatment. 
 
 [One day, doctors might prescribe viruses instead of antibiotics] 
 
 Using a virus as a drug isn't a new idea. Phage therapy, where viruses that attack certain bacteria are used in place of antibiotics, is commonly used in Europe and on the rise in the United States. But cancer therapies like the one described in the new paper take things a step further, manipulating existing viruses to turn them into cancer-fighting tools. 
 
 Kevin Harrington, Professor of Biological Cancer Therapies at The Institute of Cancer Research and head of the trial, has been working on this particular virus for about a decade. Before he signed onto the project, it was primarily being investigated as a breast cancer treatment. But Harrington brought head, neck, and skin cancer patients into the mix, and melanoma seemed to have the best responses of all. 
 
 Here's how T-VEC works: It starts with the herpes virus, which is magnificent at proliferating itself within cells and then causing them to burst (that's where the cold sores come from). But T-VEC has had two key genes removed. These keep it from replicating within healthy cells, which can quickly spot it because of the missing genes. 
 
 But cancer cells aren't as savvy, and T-VEC has its run of them. Meanwhile, T-VEC has also been modified to produce a molecule called GM-CSF, which serves as a red flag waved at the immune system. 
 
 So in addition to the destructive power of the T-VEC cells themselves, the therapy summons the immune system right to where it's needed -- the tumor. 
 
 [Watch how the body’s ‘serial killers’ stalk and attack cancer cells] 
 
 "This is a first in class agent, a brand new therapy," Harrington said. "But it's just the farthest along of what we hope will be many more." 
 
 Harrington expects the FDA to clear T-VEC within the year, and it could potentially be available to patients right away. 
 
 But there's more work to be done to determine just how T-VEC can fit into the cancer-treatment landscape. When the latest trial was started, Harrington explained, there was no standard of treatment for melanoma -- so it's compared to a treatment that no one expected to outpace T-VEC. Now that other therapies -- ones that target specific mutations in patients' cancer cells -- are showing more success than what was available when the trial was formed, researchers will have to see how T-VEC compares. 
 
 "The next steps are exciting, and already underway," he said. "The next big frontier will be to combine this with existing immunotherapies. There's a strong rationale that other drugs on the market could act synogistically with ours." 
 
 Trials are also underway to determine how T-VEC might do with other cancers. In the meantime, other researchers will continue to crack the codes of other viruses to make them do our bidding. 
 
 Want more science? Give these a click: 
 
 Personalized cancer vaccines have already helped treat three patients 
 
 Smartwatches might cause cancer, says article based on ‘expert’ who pushes holistic breast cancer treatments 
 
 Ancient Egyptian skeleton shows signs of breast cancer 
 
 Sun damage keeps happening even after you go inside, new study says
– Adding herpes to skin cancer sounds like adding insult to injury, but researchers say that a modified version of the virus that causes cold sores has led to a major breakthrough for cancer patients. The genetically engineered virus stopped melanoma by "killing cancer cells and sparking the immune system into action," researchers from Britain's Institute of Cancer Research say in a press release. This is the first time a virus has been used to fight skin cancer, the BBC reports, and although only around a quarter of patients responded to the "T-VEC" treatment, it had impressive results on them, sending 10% of people with aggressive melanoma into complete remission, the Guardian reports. The lead researcher, professor of biological cancer therapies Kevin Harrington, tells the Guardian that the treatment involves injecting the modified herpes virus into tumors, where it multiplies inside cancer cells until they burst and trigger an immune system response. "It's like an unmasking of the cancer," he says. "The patient's immune system wakes up and attacks the cancer cells wherever they are in the body." Harrington tells the Washington Post that this is "the farthest along of what we hope will be many more" such "virotherapy" treatments, and he expects the FDA to clear it within a year. (Click for not-as-great STD-related news.)