Oncolytic virotherapy lends benefits to melanoma patients

Recent study published online by Melanoma Research journal indicates that melanoma patients would significantly benefit from prolonging the survival with oncolytic viroherapy treatment (http://journals.lww.com/melanomaresearch/toc/publishahead).

The study  revealed that the early stage  melanoma patients treated with oncolytic medicine Rigvir were 4 to 6 times more likely to survive than those who following the current guidelines for the treatment of melanoma were only observed.

Melanoma is one of the fastest-growing cancers and has the highest mortality rate of skin cancers. More than half of melanoma patients experience progression of disease within next 3 years after diagnosis. Unfortunately, current clinical practice guidelines for early stage melanoma patients provide few, if any, recommendations for treatment after surgery.

Rigvir is a live nonpathogenic enterovirus, adapted and selected for melanoma that has not been genetically modified. Rigvir has oncotropic and oncolytic properties. Rigvir finds and infects tumour cells, a process called oncotropism. Then, Rigvir replicates in tumour cells and destroys them. This process is called oncolysis.

Both of these processes, oncotropism and oncolysis, are selective for tumour cells and normal healthy cells are minimally, if at all, affected. Moreover, Rigvir demonstrated an outstanding safety profile because there was no record of any untoward side effect from Rigvir treatment or its discontinuation.

Melanoma treatment using oncolytic virus is a cancer treatment option that has been observed for over a century and is presently being studied intensively. The effect of viruses on cancers, including melanoma, has been tested in clinical trials, however the effectivness of an approved and marketed virus has not yet  been shown in a clinical setting.

Rigvir is the first oncolytic virus in the world with anticancer and immunomodulating effects, which is registered for cancer virotherapy and introduced in medical practice. Rigvir was approved in 2004 in Latvia for melanoma therapy and since 2011 is fully reimbursed by government for skin melanoma patients here. Since 2015 Rigvir is included in the national guidelines for the skin cancer and melanoma treatment.