knowledge, CEGE's lung cancer treatment . . .
is based on a very different approach than CYGX's. However, the promising results of its vaccine with some types of lung cancer could undercut the attractiveness of CYGX's upcoming treatment -- depending on the range of cancers for which CYGX's treatment proves effective compared to the vaccine from Cell Genesys.
This week's edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute featured an article on a mid-stage clinical trial of Cell Genesys's GVAX vaccine for non-small cell lung cancer -- the leading cause of cancer death in the United States.
In the study of 43 patients who received the vaccine, three patients with an advanced form of the disease experienced complete remission. They have been cancer free for three years since receiving the vaccine.
Two of those patients suffered from bronchiolaolveolar carcinoma, leading researchers to believe that the treatment might prove to be particularly effective for that subset of lung cancer patients.
In seven other patients the disease did not progress for between five and 28 months.
What happened to the other 33 patients? If the disease for them progressed without any impact from the vaccine, the effectiveness is only for 1 in 3 -- MUCH better than current treatents but not as good as we hope to get from CYGX's antisense treatment.
