Ramón Salazar
Head of Medical Oncology at the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO), head of the Colorectal Cancer Research Group, Oncobell programme (IDIBELL) and associate professor of Medicine at the University of Barcelona
The design of the work is of very good quality, with a very strong translational study. So far it provides evidence of a promising immunological response and phase 2 clinical activity for this combination, but not conclusive evidence of therapeutic benefit from the addition of T-VEX [oncolytic viruses] to this particular chemotherapy combination.
The chemotherapy regimen used does not contain platinums, which are the most effective drugs in this clinical indication. In the future it would probably make sense to combine T-VEX with platinums and even immunotherapy, which is currently being developed with immune checkpoint inhibitors.