Eliciting a systemic antitumor immune response, in a patient who presents with or who is at risk of developing multiple metastatic tumors of a given cell type, entails, in one embodiment, inoculating a tumor in the patient with a pharmaceutical composition consisting essentially of (A) a herpes simplex virus (HSV) that infects tumor cells but that does not spread in normal cells and (B) a pharmaceutically acceptable vehicle for the virus, such that an immune response is induced that is specific for the tumor cell type and that kills cells of the inoculated tumor and of a non-inoculated tumor. In another embodiment, the pharmaceutical composition also comprises a defective HSV vector which contains an expressible nucleotide sequence encoding at least one immune modulator. In another embodiment, the pharmaceutical composition contains a second HSV that infects tumor cells but that does not spread in normal cells. According to the latter approach, both the first HSV and the second HSV may have genomes that comprise, respectively, an expressible nucleotide sequence coding for at least one immune modulator. In another embodiment, the pharmaceutical composition comprises, in addition to a herpes simplex virus (HSV) that infects tumor cells but that does not spread in normal cells, a viral vector comprising at least one expressible nucleotide sequence coding for at least one immune modulator.Linvention concerne des méthodes permettant de solliciter une réponse immunitaire anti-tumorale systémique chez un patient présentant ou risquant de développer des métastases multiples dun type cellulaire donné. Un des modes dapplication consiste à inoculer la tumeur du patient avec une composition pharmaceutique comprenant essentiellement (A) un virus herpès simplex (HSV) qui infecte les cellules tumorales mais ne se propage pas aux cellules normales et (B) un véhicule pharmaceutiquement acceptable pour le virus, afin dinduire une réponse immunitaire qui est spécifique au type cellula
