NorthWest Biotherapeutics Inc (NWBO)

[meirluc]

Doc, when comparing early to later administration of DCVax-L, one also has to take into consideration the percentage of ndGBM and rGBM patients who are able to live 2-3 years (longer than the average patient) and not base the comparison only on 5 year survival. Another wild card that may favor rGBM patients is the possibility that a certain percentage of those patients can undergo additional treatment with their resected post progression tumor vaccine. Such a vaccine could be a powerful weapon not only because of it's homology to the tumor but also because it is directed against a tumor that is often enriched with hypermutated mesenchymal phenotype components that increase the vulnerability of the tumor to the vaccine.

You are of course right that the nGBM treated population, treated with DCVax-L from the get go, may end up with a much higher fraction of 5 year survivors than the later treated rGBM patients. However, we still don't know that and we therefore have to wait for the JA.