Talk:Talimogene Laherparepvec: A groundbreaking viral therapy for late stage melanoma

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This was an interesting topic to read. Its fascinating that researchers have been able to take a pathogenic virus and genetically modify it to be useful for targeting melanoma. Cutting the neurovirulence factors out to lower the herpes simplex virus-1 pathogenicity, while also boosting its ability to infect and target melanoma tumor cells. The results are even more intriguing, effective tumor shrinkage, even in terminal patients, at the spot of injection and in distant tumors is miraculous. All this while using a live virus. I think you did a good job outlining this strategy of using a genetically modified virus as a cancer therapeutic. -Michael Itschner II


I enjoyed the way that you told about the clinical trials and effectiveness of this immunotherapy drug. I would like to see more background on melanoma first before you dive into treatment. What does a melanoma cell look like, what about its genome? I would like to visialize what melanoma looks like in cells which would help explain the effectiveness of this drug on melanoma? Explain the benefits and drawbacks of other types of treatment. Show the reader why this immunotherapy is revolutionary and is better than say just straight up removing cancerous cells. Following up with the trials, are there any long term side effects after the year and a half treatment periods? Are there any fatalities as a result of treating the wrong cells and causing lysis that goes too far? There is some wording issues and I liked what you did but I would like to hear more about melanoma before I become more invested in new treatments. -Alan Brennan