NorthWest Biotherapeutics Inc (NWBO)

[meirluc]

What they pretend not to understand, is that crossover renders the comparison against placebo noncrossovers ridiculous, because they nearly all died early (but only include a third of control), and against the entire group because crossover makes the comparison against unimpeded by (pretreated) TMZ DCVax-l, a very high statistical hurdle.

Maybe I am being simplistic but wouldn't it have been better to compare the mPFS and post progression mOS of the entire 92 member "intend to crossover group" (64 crossovers and 29 permanent placebos) with the mPFS and post progression mOS of the ECAs?

This would be a good comparison because all the patients in the ECAs as well as in the "intend to crossover group" received TMZ and all patients progressed. What you can compare is the mPFS and post progression mOS of the ECAs to the mPFS and post progression mOS of the "intend to crossover group". Most likely the mPFS of the 64 crossovers was considerably longer than that of the ECAs as was their post progression mOS. OTOH the 29 permanent placebos most likely had a shorter PFS as well as a shorter post progression mOS than the ECAs but I bet that while the combined group of 92 "intend to crossover group" had a mPFS that was close to that of the ECAs, the mOS of the combined group of 92 "intend to crossover patients" was much longer than the mOS of the ECAs and that would be due to the post progression efficacy of DCVax-L for the group of 64 crossovers.

While I cannot estimate the mPFS of the 92 patient "intend to crossover
group, I am guessing that the mOS of that combined group is around 24 months.