BioVex To Announce Updated Survival Data From a Phase II Clinical Study of OncoVEX GM-CSF in Metastatic Melanoma at The 2009 American Society of Clinical Oncolo...( WOBURN Mass. May 15 /- BioVex Inc a c...),Health

WOBURN, Mass., May 15 /PRNewswire/ -- BioVex Inc, a company developing new generation biologics for the treatment and prevention of cancer and infectious disease, announced today that updated survival data from its Phase II study in metastatic melanoma will be presented at the 2009 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, taking place from May 29, 2009 - June 2, 2009 in Orlando, FL.

Senior clinical investigator, Neil N. Senzer, M.D., will present the data in an abstract (number 9035) entitled "Phase II clinical trial with a second generation, GM-CSF encoding, oncolytic herpes virus in unresectable metastatic melanoma," at ASCO on Monday, June 1, 2009 from 8:00am - 12:00pm EDT during the melanoma poster session located in Level 2, West Hall C.

The Phase II trial enrolled 50 patients with Stage IIIc (10 patients) and Stage IV melanoma (40 patients) who were treated with OncoVEX GM-CSF as a stand-alone therapy. The trial was designed to measure overall objective response, which is defined as a complete response (CR), where disease is completely eliminated, or partial response (PR), where there is a >30% reduction in disease burden. The vast majority of patients who entered the study had progressive disease after having failed conventional and experimental prior therapies. 13 objective systemic responses (26% objective response rate) were achieved including nine CRs, eight of which remain alive and free of disease. 12 responses have so far continued for more than 6 months (range 6-29+ months). Responses were observed in patients with all stages of disease, including the complete resolution of un-injected visceral deposits.

The abstract for the presentation reports that, at the time of submission, overall median survival (by Kaplan-Meier estimation) exceeded 16 months for all patients as well as for those patients with only Stage IV disease. Estimated one year survival was 61% for all pa
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