Stimuvax (BLP25 liposome vaccine) clinical program - 1244808

Marian, I hope your mother is doing ok. I'm not sure about the specifics of BLP25 liposome but there was quite exciting news from the ASCO meeting last month, early June about stimuvax. And yes it includes our beloved ones with squamous cell.

Below is a link to a pobcast and transcript of a webinar given on the very subject a couple of weeks ago. !!
http://cancergrace.org/lung/2012/06/13/immunotherapy-for-lung-cancer-pa…

Janine

We haven't heard results from the Stimuvax (BLP-25) trial in stage III NSCLC yet, but it has completed accrual. I was hopeful we might hear this year, but I believe that there isn't a planned interval to have results reviewed and analyzed by the company isn't until at least late this year, or perhaps even early next year. I haven't heard any buzz suggesting we'd hear of any results from it at either of the larger meetings where some data tend to be presented in the fall (one is by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer in Chicago in early September, and the other is the European Society for Medical Oncology in late September). I suspect it will be at least ASCO 2013 (June) when we hear about the Stimuvax trial, unless results are released some time in a press release.

As for an appealing trial for someone with squamous NSCLC, I think ipilumumab work has been most encouraging in people with squamous histology, and otherwise the anti-PD1 vaccine work has also looked very favorable in NSCLC but especially in patients with squamous histology. Marian, the trials you mentioned look like they wouldn't be available to people in your mother's clinical situation of extensively pre-treated advanced NSCLC. There are different clinical trials available to people with different clinical scenarios, and it would probably be necessary to find a trial for people who have already received several prior lines of therapy for advanced NSCLC. Many of the trials out there are for people who haven't received prior treatment of have received just one line of systemic therapy. Good luck.

-Dr. West

I'm just learning myself and don't have a grasp yet but I have found some information that can help. Dr. Julie Brahmer gave a good explanation starting on pg 3 of the transcript here,
http://cancergrace.org/lung/files/2012/06/Brahmer-Immunotherapies-for-L…
"How do we know that this PD-1 or PD-1 pathway is important? Well, we know that this is a
potential way of tumors evading our immune system, and we think this is kind of a self-defense of
how the tumors can defend themselves or cloak themselves from the immune system.
Unfortunately, when your tumor is able to do this by expressing what the PD-1 receptor binds to –
it’s called PDL-1 or a ligand on the cell surface – it can mean that in general it’s a poor prognostic
-- patients don’t as well."

PD1 is a target on the T cell of the host (the immune cell). PDL1 is a target expressed on the tumor cell. They interact with each other, so the different strategies just work against two different targets involved in the same interactive process between tumor and immune cells.

-Dr. West

Marian, just wanted to say I'm sorry that the various treatments have not helped your mother so far. I too have a stent and a history of collapses, so know how scary all that is.
If the first trial you mentioned is NCT01285609, there don't seem to be exclusions for prior treatment - maybe that would be worth looking into? They only mention brain disease and autoimmune disease:
http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01285609
I suppose what would be difficult is if she got the carbo/taxol arm, rather than the trial drug. These are such hard choices. Best wishes to you and your mum.

I'm really sorry to hear that your mother has been getting worse. Do stick with us if you need support.