Updated 28th May 2025
What exactly are Oncolytic Viruses?
Oncolytic Viruses infect and break down cancer cells but not normal cells. Oncolytic viruses can occur naturally or can be made in the laboratory by changing other viruses. Certain oncolytic viruses are being studied in the treatment of cancer. Some scientists say they are another type of immunotherapy whilst others say it’s too early to classify them as such. The good news is that Neuroendocrine Cancer seems to figure in this work with two of these viruses apparently working on mice to date. Listed below are two active projects involving NETs, one directly and one indirectly.
Updated 28 May 2025. Oncolytic vaccine trial for high grade Neuroendocrine Neoplasms (NEN)
SVV-001 from Seneca Therapeutics is in a clinical trial for patients with high-grade neuroendocrine tumors is now open for enrollment at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, a top medical research center.
In this Phase I trial, SVV-001 will be administrated in combination with immunotherapy drugs called checkpoint inhibitors (nivolumab and ipilimumab) to test the tolerability, dosage and frequency of intratumoral therapy in patients with poorly differentiated neuroendocrine carcinomas or well-differentiated high-grade (Grade 3) neuroendocrine tumors.
- Enrollment Status: Recruiting
- Research Partner: Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center
- ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT06889493
First patient dosed: Read more here
The AdVince Trial
Way back in 2016, this was a hot topic, seen by some as the holy grail for NETs. This main initiative I’ll be discussing here had been running for years and yet oncolytic viruses are relatively new tech i.e. this initiative focussed on NETs was way ahead of its time. It only happened because a US millionaire who later died, donated 2 million US$ via a “crowdfunding” initiative (like fundraising but differently!). I started writing about it on Facebook and then transferred that content to my blog in 2018. The blue link you just read about crowdfunding featured a UK newspaper article about the trial and may not work for those in certain countries.
It’s still around but now more formally assisted by pharmaceutical company but still in the hands of Uppsala university, home of one of the very first and most highly respected ENETS Centres of Excellence. I thought it had petered out but then boom (!), news this month that the last patient on the Phase 2 trial has just received a trial dose. Still an exciting piece of clinical research! AND…… the partner pharma is now working on the next generation version. The full story is below.
Note: I will collect other oncolytic virus trials mentioning NETs and they will be added below the AdVince information. See below.
The Original AdVince trial Uppsala
Updated 24 October 2024
Elicera Therapeutics enrolls the last patient in the clinical phase I/II-trial with oncolytic virus ELC-100
Elicera Therapeutics AB (publ), a clinical stage cell and gene therapy company developing next generation cancer treatments based on CAR T-cell therapies and oncolytic viruses, armed with its proprietary commercially available technology platform iTANK, announced today that the last patient has been enrolled in the clinical phase I/II study evaluating the company’s oncolytic drug candidate ELC-100 (AdVince) against neuroendocrine tumors. The study’s preliminary results are expected to be reported in the first half of 2025.
Authors comment. So, from this development, the AdVince imitative has gone commercial with a pharma having initially taken a crowdsourcing route (Elicera Therapeutics are also working on next gen version (ELC-201) (see above)). Read the remainder of the announcement by clicking here.
Updated 21st March 2021
Thanks to a fellow patient for this update from Professor Essand.
“The AdVince trial is actively recruiting NET patients with liver metastases. The AdVince trial is a so-called phase I dose escalation study with four dose levels and we are currently treating at dose level three (so far without observing severe toxicity). As for all phase I studies, the primary endpoint is safety and to determine maximum tolerable dose of the oncolytic AdVince virus. We are of course also looking for efficacy. We have for practical reasons so far only included local patients for the dose-escalation part (phase I). This is because of the complex treatment schedule with virus infusion on days 1, 8, 22 and 50 and follow up examinations on day 80. Patients are hospitalised three-four nights during each treatment because we are required from the authorities to collect blood, urine and saliva samples to follow virus replication. The clinical phase II (efficacy) trial will open after completion of the phase I part (hopefully 2022) and we hope to make the clinical protocol somewhat easier then, not having to hospitalise patients that long”.
Updated 6th July 2020
AdVince has so far been tested in six patients in Sweden by Prof Essand, who is one of the two largest shareholders in Elicera. The company has now opened a second clinical site in Tubingen in Germany and is gearing up for a trial of 12 patients. Here’s a quote from the Professor:
“Since it is the first time this medication is being tested in humans, the Medical Product Agency (Swedish FDA) and ethics committee require that we start with dose escalation (phase I) to show that the treatment is safe. We have four dose levels with three patients per dose level and each patient is treated four times over two months and then evaluated one month later. We have treated six patients so far and thereby finished the two lowest dose level so far without observing any severe toxicity and encouraging responses. However, the trial is ongoing and it is still too early to draw any firm conclusions”.
Original blog info – The Uppsala Trial – AdVince
I’ll briefly describe what’s happening and then you can link to my Facebook article if you need more background.
The trial is called AdVince after Vince Hamilton who funded it. Unfortunately, he died before he saw any output but his forward-thinking and benevolence live on and might hopefully help NET patients in the longer term. It’s quite a small trial and is being conducted in Uppsala University Sweden, a famous European NET Centre of Excellence and where many people from across the world attend to take advantage of PRRT availability and experience and is home to famous NET specialist Kjell Öberg, MD, PhD, a professor of endocrine oncology.
A Swedish man (Jan-Erik Jannsson) was the first to get the virus to their cancer (NETs) using a genetically modified virus.
Unfortunately, I was given the news from a source close to the trial that Jan died last year of pneumonia. I have no evidence to suggest his death is in anyway connected to the trial, but I’m told he was an ill man prior to the trial commencing. I have therefore dedicated this post to him. RIP Jan.
The initial data presented by the trial indicated that AdVince can be safely evaluated in phase I/IIa clinical trial for patients with liver-dominant NET. The last I heard from the trial is that they are trying to recruit a further 12 patients to Phase IIa (the trial document allows for up to 36).
Read more background on my Facebook post here: Click here
The phase I/II trial document on the Clinical Trials Website: Click here
Then read this status update from the trial sponsors released in March 2018
Added 15th December 2021. ELC-201 (The Next Generation ‘AdVince’ trial)
Elicera Therapeutics enters into an agreement with Baylor College of Medicine for contract manufacturing of next-generation oncolytic virus, ELC-201
ELC-201 is a next-generation oncolytic virus with a combined three mode-of-actions in the treatment of cancer. The drug candidate has been genetically modified with the company’s proprietary immune-enhancing platform technology, iTANK, in addition to 4-1BBL, both of which lead to strong activation of the patient’s endogenous CD8+ killer T-cells, leading to a broad parallel attack on cancer cells. ELC-201 is applicable for the treatment of most cancers. A clinical phase I/II-study is planned to be initiated in the second half of 2023. The work is based on high-profile long-standing research conducted by Professor Magnus Essand’s research group at Uppsala University and has resulted in the development of four drug candidates, including two CAR T cells and two oncolytic viruses.
Added 24th September 2022. A Study of CF33-hNIS (VAXINIA), an Oncolytic Virus, as Monotherapy or in Combination With Pembrolizumab in Adults With Metastatic or Advanced Solid Tumors (MAST)
Neuroendocrine Neoplasms are considered solid tumours. As usual, reading the exclusion and inclusion criteria is very important. A separate blog post can be read by clicking on the graphic below:
Added 4th August 2022. Ph I/II Trial of Systemic VSV-IFNβ-NIS and Pembrolizumab in NEC
A small trial based in Mayo Minnesota. The trial target population includes pembrolizumab refractory Neuroendocrine Carcinoma (NEC) in combo with the well-known immunotherapy drug Pembrolizumab (Keytruda), already approved for some of the more esoteric NEC types. It also mentioned “solid tumours” so that potentially widens the scope somewhat.
This is a complex trial based on an engineered Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (VSV) plus Interferon B (IFNβ) and sodium iodine symporter (NIS) to produce VSV-IFNβ-NIS.
Those considering looking further into this should carefully inspect the inclusion and exclusion criteria in ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03647163 – click here.
Added 28 May 2025. Oncolytic vaccine trial for high grade Neuroendocrine Neoplasms (NEN)
SVV-001 from Seneca Therapeutics is in a clinical trial for patients with high-grade neuroendocrine tumors is now open for enrollment at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, a top medical research center.
In this Phase I trial, SVV-001 will be administrated in combination with immunotherapy drugs called checkpoint inhibitors (nivolumab and ipilimumab) to test the tolerability, dosage and frequency of intratumoral therapy in patients with poorly differentiated neuroendocrine carcinomas or well-differentiated high-grade (Grade 3) neuroendocrine tumors.
- Enrollment Status: Recruiting
- Research Partner: Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center
- ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT06889493
First patient dosed: Read more here
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Finally
Whenever I post about a trial or study, some people get excited without understanding that these new treatments and capabilities can very often take years to come to fruition and it’s also possible that clinical trials can be halted, or that national approval agencies will not approve the final product. Plus, not everyone will be eligible, so always check the exclusion and inclusion criteria in the relevant clinical trials document. Please bear that in mind when reading studies/clinical trials posted on RonnyAllan.NET
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Great article. Of late there are many developments taking place in the field of medical science, specially for treating cancer but it’s always good to know about a new method. Treating cancer by injecting oncolytic virus seems like a promising cure only time will tell how soon it comes into practice.
Another new clinical trial I came across is this:
https://netrf.org/research/phase-1-study-of-survaxm-in-survivin-positive-nets/
It is good to see more research being done for NETs.
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Great news and hope thanks for sharing
Ronny what is your opinion this T-VEC therapy would work? I see there is a phase trial I could qualify for as a sarcoma patient. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03069378?cond=T-VEC&rank=2
it’s impossible to say, it’s very early days. You would be better contacting the trial sponsors for advice (via the advanced liver and colorectal). The colorectal trial has a clinical trial document linked within and they will have a list of requirements and exclusion criteria. Good luck