NorthWest Biotherapeutics Inc (NWBO)

[john1045]

I found this paragraph in the abstract to be quite interesting using DCVax.

However, a statistically significant positive correlation was observed between the CD3+CD8+pSTAT5+% and MFI (post DCVax/pre DCVax ratio) after a single dose of IL-2 stimulation and overall patient survival (Figure 3A-B; hazard ratio = 0.1834; 95% CI = 0.045, 0.749; p = 0.018). As is apparent in Figure 3, CD3 + CD8+ T cells whose
responsiveness to IL-2 was elevated after DC vaccination compared with before DC vaccination (Figure 3B) had signficantly longer overall survival than patients whose CD3 + CD8+ T cell responsiveness to IL-2 did not change (Figure 3A). Based on this correlation, a one unit increase in the ratio of the pSTAT-5 ratio (post to pre DC vaccination) from IL-2- stimulated cytotoxic T-cells following DC vaccination reduces the risk of death in vaccinated
patients by 5.45 times.

Our findings provide evidence that alterations in cytokine responsiveness of PBLs from glioblastoma patients treated with dendritic cell vaccination are associated with overall
survival and may be reflective of vaccine efficacy. We measured STAT phosphorylation in the PBLs of glioblastoma patients enrolled in clinical trials of autologous tumor lysate loaded
or tumor antigen associated peptide pulsed dendritic cell vaccine. Initial measurements were taken from PBLs before the patient had received the DC vaccine. Comparison measurements
were made on PBL from patients after three biweekly DC vaccinations were given. When ratios of cytokine responsiveness were compared in an individual pre- and post-vaccination,
we found a strong correlation that enhanced responsiveness of CD8+ T lymphocytes to IL-2 was associated with long-term survival of greater than 2 years. DC vaccination reproducibly
induced elevated IL-2 (pSTAT-5) responsiveness, the magnitude of which was also directly associated with survival.