ImClone Systems Inc (formerly IMCL)

[jbog]

Uppy,

I think you're getting you BSC's,ABC's and Os's confused.

Lets talk about a 3rd line or salvage regimen which is what the 025 or pani's approval trial is dealing with.

BSC is Best Supportive Care which is nothing more than keeping the patient comfortable until he dies. You do nothing to try to stop or retard the disease, you basically are just letting things take it's own course.

What pani did was try to run a O/S trial for these patients but they couldn't enroll the trial, which I find hard to believe only because Erby had no trouble enrolling it's trial and it's the easiest patient to find. He has no other choice. Pani instead promised it's people that they would use a PFS goal and if you were in the no-pani arm they would give you pani as you got sicker. PFS is the progression free survival mark that your tumor either shrinks or stays within a certain size. Once your tumor grows past those parameters (or if you die) you've progressed and that time period is recorded.

I've argued from day one that who gives a hoot about PFS as a salvage treament, I don't want to hold my tumor size within a preset guideline, I want to live longer. (os).

That's where OS comes in, plain in simple it's a measurement in how long you live.