The forthcoming TNBC data remind me of the Immunopulse IL-12 monotherapy trial where patients going directly from IL-12 to anti-PD-1 agents had profound responses in advanced melanoma. That trial demonstrated around 75% ORR and I think 50% complete responders in the subset. I'm not saying the TNBC study will observe those same percentages - after all, the trial is tiny and only designed for immune monitoring data, but there might be some very tantalizing data coming out next month. To maintain perspective, approximately 5% of heavily pretreated TNBC patients respond to anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 agents and the complete response rate is well below 1%.
There is likely a very good reason why O'Connor wants to advance TAVO quickly through a combination study in TNBC.