Could be.
If some treatment patients were progressing significantly earlier than the control patients...
and with rapid progressor patients removed, all of these patients should have taken around at least 6 months to progress at this point (remember, they entered the trial a full 3 months after diagnosis so that would be 9 months later)
... that would, well, not look too good.
And if there was someone in a position at the FDA or even on the DMC to institute a halt on the trial for a reason such as this, they might very well do that.
Of course, any such aforementioned person likely would know that immunotherapy can cause enhancement or psPD or even an increase in size of a tumor (as in the case of Direct).
But sometimes people like this can have what many would refer to as hidden conflicts of interest.
And in such cases, these people may act in their own self interests, and therefore, perhaps not as an ethical person should act.
Amazingly, sometimes evidence of such conflicts of interest are right there on google... staring one in the face. Sigh.
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