Replies to post #31894 on Marker Therapeutics Inc (MRKR)

[Phantom Lord]

Is THAT the "medicine/treatment" that was given to the one MRD positive patient and five frank relapse patients in the safety lead-in stage of the Marker Phase 2 AML trial?

No. This was one of the first people dosed in the safety lead in.

Did they delay the adjuvant group because they want to use the new "9 day, 4 times more potent" medicine/treatment in further adjuvant procedures?

Yes. It does seem that way.

And also, if the 5 frank relapse patients, the way I read it, were "frank" when they were given to us, as in they had ALREADY relapsed BEFORE MT-401 who knows how many times and from who knows how many different drugs and treatments, and therefore (I assume) must have been sick for a long time ... in other words, weren't the chances for "curing" very sick, already relapsed patients very small to start with?

This is what I have been saying FOREVER. The patients they are treating have already failed multiple lines of treatment. I think in the PI it was 4-10 prior lines of therapy failed. The active patients are running out of options and nothing is working. The chance of curing them is small. That is why they need to compare the therapy to DLI in the active group. If you do that then it's an efficacy match, or better, and WAY better safety profile. We just aren't going to see a ton of CRs in the active group.

How many already relapsed frank patients have others "cured"?

Good question. Probably not many.

[hanscott]

Micro, you asked: "How many already relapsed frank patients have others "cured"?"

This article from 2013 says:

Chemotherapy alone generally produces only short-term responses in patients relapsing post-transplant, and the best results have been achieved when a donor lymphocyte infusion or a second allogeneic transplant is performed to consolidate a chemotherapy-induced response. ____ Results are very dependent on patient selection.

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There's some other more recent articles I haven't had a chance to look at yet but this one from 2021 is interesting:

Feasibility and efficacy of salvage allogeneic stem cell transplantation in AML patients relapsing after autologous stem cell transplantation

Note:
HCT is the same as HSCT = hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
HDCT = high-dose chemotherapy used to wipe out patient's bone marrow prior to transplant

Our study suggests that almost 80% of AML patients can undergo salvage therapy following relapse after front-line HDCT/autologous HCT.

Allogeneic HCT can provide cure in one third of patients relapsing after front-line HDCT/autologous HCT.

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But note this isn't necessarily an "apples to apples" comparison to our stuff. First, These patients relapsed after "autologous" stem cell transplants (the patient's stem cells were used) where as MRKR patient's had "allogeneic" stem cell transplants (from a genetically matched donor). But in the paper they say the outcome for the autologous was around ~50% relapse rate, the same as with allogeneic, so whether the initial transplant was auto vs allo didn't seem to matter.