Long time voyeur, 2nd post. I am one of the 1st recipients of one of the earliest Monoclonal Anitbody (MAB) vaccines. I received my vaccine in 1995 at Stanford in a Phase II Clinical Trial for NHL. My Dr. was Dr. Ronald Levy (He's a Legend & I am honored to be one of his patients). He also co-founded IDEC which delivered Rituximab, aka Rituxin (the 1st MAB approved by the FDA for cancer treatment) IDEC later merged with Biogen in 2003.
My friend who was diagnosed on Sept. 3, 2011 with GBM, had only 5 days to find the DCVax-L trial and be accepted for screening. His Dr. at one of the local hospitals in our home town knew about the trial, but didn't recommend it. Our friend and his wife were appalled, when they found out! It took, 3 close friends working together to get him in to UCLA, one even made some calls to have a bed made available for him which wasn't available originally. Needless to say, he had brain surgery (performed by Dr. Linda Liau) 5 days later. Unfortunately he had a shadow after his chemo and radiation, (his white count was questionable as well) they decided to give him the vaccine and put him in his own compassionate use arm. Now I am not sure if he is the lone pseudo progressor or if he was the start of the information arm, but when I talked to his wife, she said, they started an arm just for him. He received his first vaccine in Dec. 2011. From that point forward he and his wife have been traveling the globe, enjoying their lives together. These 2 have been together since we were in HS and we are all in our mid to late 50's, so it's been wonderful to see them enjoying life. Now in October, of this year they found a spot. They did another MRI in Nov. 15 and confirmed it was back and it had doubled in size. They started him on chemo & radiation immediately. This month - His Dr.(this is the Oncologist that administers the radiation & chemo, not Dr. Liau who did his surgery) said, she was so surprised to see the spot stabilize and that she hadn't ever had a patient halt GBM growth after only one round of chemo, especially since it had doubled the month before.
I know people are frustrated with the share price drop and the lack of information, but being a cancer survivor who has gone through a clinical trial and seeing the success first hand, I believe this technology is working. It may not be "the Cure" for all but it can be for some and it can buy time for others. My friend is past the four year survival point from diagnosis. They had given him 17 months to live.
I thought some of you would appreciate the timeline. And the remark about the chemo after it reoccurred especially. We are praying DCVax is a cure for some, just as the MAB vaccine was a cure for me.
It also amazes me how fast the DCVax can be manufactured as mine took all of six months and they needed all of the grapefruit sized tumor to manufacture my vaccines. After my surgery and before my vaccine, I did 6 months of CVP chemo. Once I was free of cancer I received my vaccine, 1 shot in each arm (and darn it stung! It felt like someone took curling irons to the back of my arms). It made me sick, flu like symptoms for a couple of days, but nothing like the chemo. Which was horrible and by the way can cause cancer (if you read the fine print). I was 32 when I received my first 2 vaccines of many, I have never had another occurrence since.
My point is, I believe the DCVax technology is working. It may be working better in some than in others, but it is working, if it buys a cancer patient an extra 2 months or an extra 4 years, it's doing its job. And without the nasty, horrible side effects of continuous chemo & radiation. The QOL is SO Important to a cancer survivor. I believe in this technology like I believed in the MAB vaccine I had at Stanford 20 years ago.
And I wish all who are invested, whether as a patient, Dr., Clinical site, NWBO or here on this board Good Luck.
