needinfo
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Posts:10
Now that Stimuvax has failed in the PH3 trials, is their any hope for the other vaccines? Lucanix seems to be the most promising, but after the Stimuvax failure, i can't get optimistic. Are there other vaccines out there that can help potentially have a dramatic response for NSCLC?
Forums
Reply # - December 19, 2012, 12:01 PM
Reply To: Stimuvax
Sorry, needinfo, when I posted earlier I had not seen the report you must have been referring to:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/12/19/us-merck-stimuvax-idUKBRE8BI0C…
However, people still eem very interested in the anti-PD-1 therapies that Dr Brahmer described in the summer:
http://cancergrace.org/lung/2012/06/16/immunorx-in-lc-pt-2-brahmer/
Reply # - December 19, 2012, 12:08 PM
Reply To: Stimuvax
Let's see about the subgroup analysis and see if there is any benefit to certain segment. this is a disappointment, and I also had high hopes for Lucanix too.
ssflxl
Reply # - December 19, 2012, 08:54 PM
Reply To: Stimuvax
I'm planning to do a brief video discussion of the topic, tomorrow if I can find the time. We can see about releasing it in the next few days. The short answer is that:
1) I was hopeful but far from ready to presume that the trial would be positive. We'll need to see how negative these results really are. It's possible that there were some strong trends that didn't reach statistical significance, and I agree that we'll need to see what the subgroups showed. However, there's good reason to be concerned that Stimuvax may not have much life left in it, just in terms of how much Merck KGA and Oncothyreon (the companies developing it and funding the research) are willing to invest in the face of waning enthusiasm.
2) Just as I wouldn't want to presume that Stimuvax would be positive, I wouldn't presume that these negative results doom other immunotherapies to failure.
Overall, I think a lot of this work has been caught up in irrational exuberance, largely by patients and caregivers, but also by investors, who are just intoxicated by the concept of immunotherapy and were too drawn in by the sexiness of the concept. That's a mistake -- these treatments are only as strong as the underlying data, which were encouraging but not definitive. We've seen too many people caught up in positive phase II data that didn't pan out, so I'm cautious...but I don't want to throw out the baby with the bathwater either. Some phase II trials do actually translate to very positive phase III trials later.
-Dr. West