“Second mouse gets the cheese “”While work continues to find the next oncolytic virus therapy to make a clinical impact, several unanswered questions remain, including when the treatment should be deployed. Clinical trials of novel therapeutics typically focus on patients with advanced cancers for whom all other treatment avenues have been explored, and this has also been the case for oncolytic viruses. Kaufman, however, believes that their place may be earlier in the treatment journey, as a neoadjuvant therapy. He predicts that “getting to earlier stage cancers and neoadjuvant therapy for the more advanced disease is going to be the sweet spot for these agents because they get you that personalized immune response you need.”
https://www.insideprecisionmedicine.com/news-and-features/are-we-nearly-there-yet/
ONCY’s planned Phase 3 clinical trial involving pelareorep in combination with the PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab (Tecentriq) as a first line therapy in advanced/metastatic pancreatic cancer, and following CG Oncology’s intended Phase 3 clinical trial results submission for an FDA Biologics License Application in bladder cancer, should make ONCY’s pelareorep in PDAC a hot item, as the 2nd CPI + OV combination on the market in a what is considered to be a very difficult cancer with an unmet treatment need. The FDA will have gained enough experience with OVs + CPIs by then to look at ONCY’s much more favorable light as an addition to this class of biological therapies.