Replies to post #62387 on Ayala Pharmaceuticals Inc (ADXS)

[hovacre]

No, I won't let that comment go. My primary job is to keep tabs, on the high level, of where different fields are heading, and every time I have to write about a tumor type, I have to re-research the tumor to get a sense of where it is moving.

Here is a list of the drug approvals in the last year that I can recall off the top of my head:

Pembrolizumab for MMRd/MSI-high relapsed tumors
Ribociclib for first-line HR+ breast cancer
Abemaciclib for first-line HR+ breast cancer
Abemaciclib for previously treated HR+ breast cancer (after chemo and endocrine therapy)
Durvalumab for bladder cancer
Pembrolizumab for bladder cancer, recurrent and first-line
Avelumab for bladder cancer
Avelumab for Merkel cell carcinoma
Nivolumab/ipilimumab for renal cancer
Nivolumab for adjuvant melanoma
Durvalumab after definitive CRT for non-small cell lung cancer
Sunitinib for adjuvant treatment of renal cell carcinoma
Olaparib for maintenance after chemo in platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer
Niraparib for same
Olaparib for BRCA-mutant breast cancer
Neratinib for HER2-positive early breast cancer
Pertuzumab for adjuvant therapy in HER2-positive breast cancer
Alectinib for first-line, ALK-positive lung cancer
Ceritinib for first-line, ALK-positive lung cancer
Afatinib for first-line, EGFR-mutated lung cancer (if the EGFR mutation is an uncommon one)
Osimertinib for T790M-mutated EGFR-driven lung cancer
Regorafenib for recurrent liver cancer
Nivolumab for recurrent liver cancer
177Lu-Dotatate for midgut neuroendcorine tumors


Again, this is off the top of my head, and I've specifically excluded hematology. And that's to say nothing about keeping up with the evidence base that will impact on clinical trials. How many specialties do you count? How many specialties do you presume an average oncologist should or would be familiar with?

So your statement, which deserves an answer, is absurd. It's my job to know these things at this level of breadth, and the sacrifice is that I couldn't even begin to make real treatment decisions for patients. On the flip side, a doctor probably couldn't rattle off a list of drug approvals like that at will.

So you would presume that not only should a doctor 1) Keep up on his/her own field of study (hard), 2) Keep up with the approved drugs in other solid tumor areas (somewhat hard), but that they should also keep up with all the exploratory strategies in development for all subspecialties? Come on.

It's not a conspiracy. It's not pharma pushing drugs. It's doctors trying to save lives, and there is a prioritization of information that brings the most important things to the top. Until ADXS shows they can change the game, there is too much other noise.