NorthWest Biotherapeutics Inc (NWBO)

[Doktornolittle]

STAT article: I thought this section was informative. It explains to me why there is not more emphasis on genetic testing. I wonder if methylation is among the genetic characteristics that is considered so heterogeneous that it is not very useful to take into account during treatment. Actually... I think it is considered worth taking into account, and is therefore a useful subgroup to call out apriori (to a trial), but maybe not so useful as to gamble skipping Temador if the tumor is determined to be "not methylated".

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"The exception is if a patient’s glioblastoma is much more uniform than the norm. In that case, it is “addicted” to one specific proliferation pathway that’s vulnerable to a molecularly targeted therapy, Gilbert said. Since McCain will have access to the best care, he will presumably have his tumor genetically profiled (which costs upward of $8,000) to see if it falls into this category. With any luck, he will be in the 2 percent to 3 percent of patients with an extremely uniform glioblastoma that succumbs to a therapy that knocks out its one proliferation pathway."
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DCVax-L is, of course, better suited, in theory, to deal with the varied genetics within a tumor.

https://www.statnews.com/2017/07/21/mccain-glioblastoma-treatments/