quote:"... I might be mistaken but I thought progression allowed crossover and I'd be inclined to think, at some point, he got the vaccine...."
It's impossible to say. There are certain reasons why this may not be the case.
One being the speed of progression in combination with location of the mass(es).
A drawback of immunotherapy is an inflammatory response.
This is not so much of an issue elsewhere in the body, but in the brain, there is limited space in the cranial cavity for expansion (soft grey matter is no match for dense bone, and something has to give).
As a tumor grows, it puts pressure on the rest of the brain and spinal cord. Often, the loss of brain function that patients experience is not from the areas near the tumor itself, but from the areas where the pressure is greatest.
If Robert was indeed in the control arm, and his rGBM was aggressive, it's possible that it was not caught in time.
Administering an immunotherapy (with a known inflammatory response) to a patient with increased intracranial pressure is quite possibly an earlier death sentence - The additional pressure from the vaccine could cause seizures, hemiplegia or fatal damage to the spinal cord.
Normally, debulking surgery would have to take place in order to relieve pressure on the brain, but this isn't always possible.
Of course, he could just have been on the treatment arm and not responded both times.
But, given the weight of growing evidence, one might favor the assumption that he was on control.
RIP
