hopefilled: good/great question: IMO PPHM would NOT take their findings to ESMO if they did not think they had worthwhile news...and I'm sure the program entries are screened also. You just cannot get away with nonsense at such a meeting more than once. “Presented data will include a biomarker in the SUNRISE trial that correlated with a statistically significant improvement in OS for patients treated with bavituximab+Doce vs. Doce alone." It sounds like a "new" biomarker combined with a "ho-hum" new drug (Bavituximab), so the chances of this being a huge stock price mover are not great, but there is room for both upside and downside surprise. For instance, what percentage of patients showed the improvement? How much improvement? And most important, as I've said here ad nauseum, when considering a MAB of any kind pitted against advanced lung cancer, the chances of a cure are small to the vanishing point. We see statistically significant differences in many instances that do not translate into a cost-effect significant improvement in quality of life. In other words, OS might be extended from 6 months to 8 months, which might attain statistical significance, but is not a marketable difference in treatment. I think Bavi-like MABs will have a place on the treatment table, and for cancer treatment it all will depend on how early treatment begins...and it is conceivable that Bavi or similar will be used for prophylaxis against that disease and many others. As far as a biomarker, is it something detectable by a blood test, or will it require biopy of the tumor during treatment? Who knows what they are up to, but I know it will be interesting.
