NorthWest Biotherapeutics Inc (NWBO)

[Lykiri]

Interesting read about patient Fay who was eligible for the DCVax-L trial.

Emerging Tissue Economies: Personalized Immunotherapies and Therapeutic Value in Cancer.
Henry Llewellyn
Division of Psychiatry, University College London, London, UK
Published online: 13 Apr 2021

Although the immunotherapy vaccine ultimately fell short of Fay’s hope to live ten more years, it remains promising among the brain tumor community (Lui et al. 2020; Mastelic-Gavillet et al. 2019). A May 2018 article published promising interim results for DCVax-L, with a six-month increase in median survival among all trial participants (regardless of trial arm14) compared with usual survival after standard treatment observed in past studies and clinical practice (Liau et al. 2018). The Brain Tumor Charity – a prominent UK-based advocacy group – issued a statement in their news blog on 29 May 2018 immediately after publication of these results and heralded a possible “paradigm shift in the treatment of brain tumors.” Others have been more temperate. Another UK-based charity, Brain Tumor Research, countered the following day in their blog with concerns over the high cost of the vaccine, the ethics of making treatments available for private use, if they are not publicly fundable, and the risks of “giving false hope … when the data is hopeful but not yet clear.” So far, NICE have remained silent on the question of DCVax-L. Their review has remained suspended since September 2018.15 As reported on the Brain Tumor Charity’s news and emerging treatments pages, if NICE approves DCVax-L, and if full regulatory approval is granted, the NHS would be obliged to make DCVax-L available to patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma within three months. Importantly, hopes in tissue-based therapies have also informed calls from UK advocates to standardize the flash freezing of tumor tissue in post-surgery protocols and prompted the US-based National Brain Tumor Society to include an item about freezing tissue for vaccinations among a list of 10 recommended questions for patients to ask their surgeons.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01459740.2021.1902322