# Howard L. Kaufman

Source: https://onco.cc/people/howard-kaufman/  
OnCo record `howard-kaufman` (Person). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Led OPTiM, the trial that made talimogene laherparepvec the first approved oncolytic virus therapy.

## Summary

Howard Kaufman was a lead investigator and senior author of OPTiM, the phase 3 trial showing the herpes-based oncolytic virus talimogene laherparepvec improves durable response rates in advanced melanoma, leading to the first approval of an oncolytic virus in 2015. He led the JAVELIN Merkel 200 trial of avelumab and was president of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer.

## Fields

- Kind: Person
- Last checked: 2026-09-10
- Tags: immunotherapy; oncolytic-virus; melanoma
- Role: Surgical Oncologist, Massachusetts General Hospital; Chief Medical Officer, Ankyra Therapeutics
- Specialisms: Oncolytic virus therapy; Melanoma; Intratumoural immunotherapy; Merkel cell carcinoma

## Sources

- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Kaufman%20HL%5BAuthor%5D%20talimogene%20oncolytic

## Connected records

- cancers: [Melanoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/melanoma/), [Merkel cell carcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/merkel-cell-carcinoma/)
- technologies: [Oncolytic viruses](https://onco.cc/technologies/oncolytic-virus/)
- drugs: [Talimogene laherparepvec](https://onco.cc/drugs/talimogene-laherparepvec/)
- institutions: [Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center](https://onco.cc/institutions/mgh/), [Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer](https://onco.cc/institutions/sitc/)
- journals: [Nature Reviews Drug Discovery](https://onco.cc/journals/nature-reviews-drug-discovery/)
- key papers: [OPTiM: the trial that made talimogene laherparepvec the first approved oncolytic virus](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-andtbacka-optim-talimogene-jco-2015/), [Shalhout 2023: what the approved oncolytic viruses actually do in practice](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-shalhout-oncolytic-progress-challenges-natrevclinonc-2023/)
- trials: [JAVELIN Merkel 200](https://onco.cc/trials/javelin-merkel-200/)

---
JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/howard-kaufman.json