Oncolytic viruses on the cusp of success?: proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Oncolytic Virus Therapeutics

Boston, Massachusetts, was the site of the 9th International Conference on Oncolytic Virus Therapeutics held 13–16 June 2015. An overarching theme of the meeting was the continued development of combinatorial treatment regimens to bolster the therapeutic potential of oncolytic viruses (OVs). Several talks focused on combining OVs with immune checkpoint inhibitors in a wide array of tumors, signaling an experimental and thematic shift toward driving immune activation to clear a tumor versus relying on direct viral oncolysis. An important aspect of the meeting was the variety of ongoing OV clinical trials. Topics ranged from basic virology to clinical trials and from academic research to intellectual property and biotechnology. There was much excitement due to the US Food and Drug Administration’s recent consideration of talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC) for the treatment of advanced melanoma (T-VEC was approved in October, following the conference). Here, we summarize the meeting’s primary themes, which reflect the current state of the field.