NorthWest Biotherapeutics Inc (NWBO)

[Nick119]

Interesting article I found in my search for Checkpoint 548 trial results (though this paper is not discussing that specific trial):

In the sole prospective phase III trial published so far, the Checkmate 143 trial, PD-L1 tumor expression was determined retrospectively by a central laboratory on archival tumor tissue from first surgery or recurrence, with PD-L1 positivity defined as membranous staining in ≥1% of tumor cells. Only 26% of tumor specimens in the nivolumab group were PD-L1 positive, and no predictive value was found at a prespecified subgroup analysis [31].
Besides its well-recognized predictive role in GBM patients undergoing standard chemoradiation with TMZ, MGMT promoter methylation is emerging as a factor potentially associated with improved outcomes in patients receiving different immunotherapeutic strategies. Again in the Checkmate 143 trial, MGMT methylated patients with no baseline corticosteroid use had a trend toward improved OS with nivolumab (17.0 months) vs. bevacizumab (10.1 months) [31]. Moreover, preliminary data from a phase 3 randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled clinical trial of an autologous tumor lysate-pulsed dendritic cell vaccine (DCVax®-L) for newly diagnosed GBM showed that the median OS was 34.7 months (95% CI 27.0–40.7) and 19.8 months (95% CI 17.9–21.7), in patients with methylated and unmethylated MGMT, respectively [60]. A possible explanation for these findings is that MGMT methylated tumors exhibit four more times the number of somatic mutations than MGMT-unmethylated GBM, making these tumors more immunogenic and more susceptible to the action of different immunotherapeutic approaches [61].

Link to paper details: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/10/7/1367/htm