is Retired - a status to which everybody should aspire
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... more so if Citadel's senior managers were smitten with a plague of boils and flies to add to their misery.
I would hope that even politicians, corrupt as many/most appear to be, would recognise the PR disaster that would befall them if they tried to swing the verdict away from "Guilty" for any entity charged with trying to destroy a company in the process of bringing a successful treatment for cancer to the market.
and what's the betting that the Chinese produce their own version of DCVax-L (and all the rest) which is either identical (or as nearly so as to make no difference) to DCVax-L but for which they have no licence nor pay royalties not have any intention of doing either. Closely followed by the Indian pharmaceutical industry who might be persuaded to at least acknowledge the origin of their version and to call it by another name.
Thanks, Lykiri, fascinating tidbits and hints in what they are saying [click here for the story] :
True: i/v coconut water was used. Not only is it isotonic (more or less) with some monosaccharide sugars but it is also naturally sterile!
Like all mammalian cells, normal or malignant, the primary source of their energy (and, thereby their continuing existence) is glucose, a monosaccharide derived from the higher sugars, the disaccharides. These comprise sucrose (the sweet stuff you put in your food or drinks), lactose ("milk sugar") and maltose (the result of the digestion of starches and other carbohydrates).
In a PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scan the image is produced by the measurement and localisation of positrons (short-lived sub-atomic particle akin to the electron but with a positive charge instead of the negative charge that the electron has). These are spontaneously emitted from a "radioactive tracer" given to the patient as the first step in the PET scan. The tracer is fludeoxyglucose F18 ("FDG") and it is taken up (just like glucose) by any cell which is metabolising (ie that is alive). Malignant cells are more active metabolically than normal cells because their metabolic control mechanisms have been lost, resulting in runaway activity. The higher the cells' metabolic rate, the more glucose (and FDG) it takes up so that when the glucose source is predominantly FDG the greater the numbers of positrons that will be emitted from within malignant cells. Concentrations of malignant cells can thus be identified, localised and quantified.
If glucose is not restricted before the PET scan all cells will be relatively replete with glucose with the result that insufficient FDG is taken up by the cells. This results in low levels of positron emission so that the scanner is unable to identify "hot spots" indicating the presence of overactive malignant cells. To avoid this, sugars are restricted before the PET scan to "slightly starve" the cells of glucose so that when the FDG is given a good amount of the FDG is taken up by the malignant cells. The concentration of positron emission can then be picked up in the PET scan.
Hoffie, Am I correct in understanding that the Judge who will hear the case is Gregory Howard Woods III?
Good thinking, Jester, I'll send you 5% of the profits.
Hey, Jester, I can do all that except for where do I get the free beer??
RoboD, how I envy you. All those great Rock Bands that you have seen in person (even if you didn't get to Woodstock) when I manged to do none of that. Although of an age and being in the right place at the right time I never, ever managed to see any of the greats perform, my time being taken up by my medical education (1961-7) followed by my employment (1967-2016). Its only when it's too late that you realise that you've missed the bus big time!
On the plus side, it was not only the bus that I missed during my time as a medical student but also the whacky baccy and psycho-active substances that my fellow (non-medical) students were won't to take. So, I can at least remember the '60s.
Hell's Bells, Robot D, The Moody Blues!!!!. This dates you! You must be one of the early wind-up models of mechanical men or did batteries come with you as part of the kit?
Best wishes (and keep your joints well oiled to prevent them becoming rusty).
Gary, don't belittle DCVax's role as being a catalyst [original definition: "a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without itself undergoing any permanent chemical change"] since DCVax plays the major role in the combination without which essentially nothing happens. Fill the patient up with a Checkpoint Inhibitor ("CI") (such as Keytruda/pemrolizumab) or an RNA Analogue (such as poly-ICLC) and the GBM carries on regardless. Treat the patient with DCVax-L and the GBM is attacked by T-cell lymphocytes to a greater or lesser extent. DCVax-L is the essential component without which nothing happens.
However, add the additional components of the triple therapy and you get more effect than that of the sum of its parts -
eg: Let's say that DCVax alone has x units of effect on GBM, pembrolizumab alone has y units of effect and poly-iclc alone has z units of effect.
If they all played an equal part then their combined action would be x + y + z units of effect.
Instead we find that their combined effect is something like 10x + y + z units of effect.
Without DCVax-L the others are as nothing. They are there purely to help DCVax do its job, the CI by suppressing the tumour's inhibitory environment and the RNA analogue by stimulating T-cell lymphocytes to greater activity. The CI and the RNA analogue are the catalysts which enable the DCVax-L sensitised T-cell lymphocytes to get on with their job unhindered and with a lot more oomph!
C'mon, LC; you made the claim so its up to you to prove to the rest of us that what you claim is true. Its not our job to prove that you are correct, especially when you are too bone idle to do the job yourself.
Well, that reply confirms that your thought processes are ineffable.
XMaster, Learningcurve brought up "Indians", not me. My post was in reply to his which queried Indian accountants. Mine was related to mind-reading.
Best wishes.
LC, How on earth do you reckon that we can fathom what is truly going on in your mind?
I can't imagine that the time Prof. Liau spends working on NWBO's Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) will be unremunerated. As this will involve her in time away from her job at UCLA I have little doubt that the money that NWBO will pay for her services will be paid not to her but paid directly to her employer, UCLA, in recompense. .
I would think that UCLA are savvy enough to realise that the licences for DCVax that they issued to NWBO will increase in value as more and more medical applications for DCVax are allowed by the Regulators. Increasing the number of medical applications for the DCVax platform can only be helped by having Prof. Liau on the SAB where her advice will be solid, up-to-the-minute and dependable so that it is hard to imagine that UCLA are anything but delighted for Prof. Liau to join NWBO (and so increase the value of their licences).
Senti, I agree. My feeling entirely. If I were to develop any form of malignancy I would opt to have surgery followed by DCVax + poly-ICLC +/- pembrolizumab (or whatever is by then found to be the best of the bunch). If any of my children or grandchildren were likewise afflicted I would suggest that regimen as the first line of attack reserving more toxic treatments as the back up if indicated.
His "rolling eyes" suggest that he's either an avatar of (?the late?) Sir Pumpernickel or that he's copying that elevated individual's trade mark of rotatory nystagmus. Either way, it is impossible to disregard the pathos in his actions.
ex, I'd be careful with your insinuations about financial matters when Prof Keymours Ashkan (or anybody else in "academic medicine") is being discussed.
Thanks, Bio. I had completely not recognised that this was a study on recurrent GBM. The excellent results which this small study bodes might be indicative of a better initial treatment of GBM. The fact that there is such an improvement in the treatment of recurrent GBM might just point to the future direction of the S.O.C. for new cases since the excellent results could in part be due to there being no preceding radiotherapy and treatment with temozolomide, both of which can adversely affect the body's immune response to the tumour.
Temozolomide in particular has an adverse effect on T-cell function which, where dendrocyte-based treatments are used, cannot be helpful to the body's response to the tumour. A N.I.H. study (reported in Neuro-Oncology in 2019) showed that "Standard dosing of temozolomide resulted in exhaustion of peripheral and intratumoral T cells." This cannot be good for the immune response to the tumour.
As for radiotherapy, T-cells are susceptible to it as are other cells but this applies only to T-cells within the irradiated tissues. There is nothing to suggest that the damaging effects of external radiation (as distinct from parenteral radio-isotope therapy) continues once radiotherapy has been completed.
From all this it could be that the "beneficial" cytotoxic effect of temozolomide on tumour cells is outweighed by its toxic effect on T-cells, raising the possibility for a future study to be undertaken to assess whether temozolomide should be removed from S.O.C. when dendroctyic therapy is part of the treatment.
Bio, thanks for correcting me but I could have sworn that this unpublished graph from earlier this year
included pembrolizumab (not by name but as "PD-1 Mab") with poly-ICLC as additions to DCVax-L.
If I have totally misunderstood the nomenclature I would appreciate being corrected so that I don't dig myself into a deeper hole in the future.
Many thanks.
Hi Mav,
I think that your reply has been mis-attributed to me.
The quote does not come from anything that I've written and I cannot see that anything in your commentary applies to my post to dstock.
Please correct me if I've misunderstood your commentary.
Best wishes,
doclee
Hoffy, with the absolutely startling enhancement of DCVax-L's efficacy that has been shown when pembrolizumb and poly-ICLC are added to the regimen, I can see that a trial of the combo should be mounted if only to set a benchmark for the efficacy of the combination against which all future trials of different drugs or combinations can be adjudged.
However, such a further study should not delay DCVax-L's contribution both to saving lives and to replensihing NWBO's coffers because once it is licenced every neuro-oncologist who has kept up to date with what is going on in the DCVax-L firmament is going to routinely prescribe the triple combination unless such a "benchmark" study were to show (unbelievably on current findings) that the addition of one or both extra components added nothing to DCVax-L's efficacy.
That's an interesting point that you raise:
George, I fully understand the realpolitik of the situation of NWBO's claim for damages against the defendants and would not kick up a fuss if the defendants bought off NWBO with a realistically meaningful offering. If that scenario were to be the one that ultimately plays out I would hope (but am not sufficiently confident in that hope) that the Federal authorities would step in to prosecute the current defendants for flagrantly breaking the law which prohibits spoofing (and other associated misdemeanours) and thereby expose the defendants to public opprobrium
However, if the defendants offered a sum of money to NWBO in exchange for a withdrawal of their suit and if that sum were not to be a slam dunk realistically compensatory amount I would expect the lawyers, Mrs Linda Powers and Mr Leslie Goldman, to roll up their sleeves, gird up their loins and declare war on the defendants. To do otherwise would not sit well with the retail share holders and would not act as a deterrent to the defendants and other criminals from continuing their illegal practices.
Go for a trial - Show the world what disgusting individuals the defendants truly are. Leave them no place in which they can hide from the gaze of their fellow human beings.
Jim, no need to thank me - we've all got to learn things that we don't come across in our everyday lives. In fact I only learned about the abbreviation "C-section " late in my career when watching "House MD"!
Best wishes
Jim, it's C-section; shorthand for "Caesarean Section".
Best wishes
Doc, I suspect that "a couple of years" was based on ignorance of the minutiae of how NWBO has been interacting with the MHRA and NICE and of the recent changes in how the MHRA assess orphan drugs and those meeting an an unmet need (as DCVax-L does). Instead, this was probably an extrapolation from their knowledge of how long other drugs have taken and they used the somewhat vague "a couple of years" so as not to raise any unjustifiable expectations of the treatment being available before this year's out - which I personally believe is more likely than not even though it is based on no specific information whatsoever.
Gary, I worry for you in your confidence that after approval the share price will be higher.
When in May last year it was clear that the results of the 10-year long trial were to be announced at the New York meeting at which nearly all of NWBO's top brass were to be present, I like you, confidently predicted that the success of the trial was assured (why else would the top brass be present). Consequently, the share price would move higher on the announcement and so I confidently bought a large tranche of shares with the money that I had kept aside precisely for when the success of the trial was announced (plus money I raised from selling my long-term holding in Geron which I intended repurchasing with the profit from the rise in NWBO's SP).
Well, the SP did move very significantly higher than I had expected but only before the announcement, but, hey!, the SP was on the way up!!
Within 48 hours those shares were worth less than half my purchase price thanks to a concerted bear attack (more of an ambush) set off by AF's lies aided by the self-serving machinations of market makers and the abysmal reporting of so-called financial analysts who looked no further than AF's lying analysis. That single purchase means that having been in profit for 9 years (average purchase price 29 cents) I am now still deep in the red.
CAVEAT EMPTOR
Still reduced to splitting hairs trying to discredit DCVax-L. By your lights, UCLA's ATL-DC is not the same as DCVax-L - just as Tylenol and Panadol are not the same as generic paracetamol, and Advil and Brufen are not ibuprofen and Amoxil and Trimox are not amoxycillin, etc etc etc.
But still the SP dived shortly after with no obvious SELLS (at least of compartive size to those BUYS) to account for the dive on closing.
I wonder why?
Gentlemen do not discuss a lady's age - certainly not in public.
.... and I'll expect to hear no more from you due to your extreme embarrassment.
Hygro - Like a worm wriggling at the end of a fishing line, trying to get off the hook (of his own making)..
Maverick, may I bring to your attention the excerpts below from a guidance document produced by the FDA in October 2022: