A trial of T-VEC (Talimogene laherparepvec) for melanoma that cannot be removed

This trial looked at treating melanoma with a drug called T-VEC (previously known as OncoVEX GM-CSF). It was for people with melanoma that had either not been treated, or had come back after earlier treatment, and could not be removed with surgery.

The treatment used a form of the cold sore virus that had been changed so that it was not harmful to normal cells, but destroyed cancer cells. The normal strain of the virus is changed by altering the genes that tell the virus how to behave.