IIRC from FTM's tables (or an article, I can't remember right now), they were not sicker. Ours are 90% Stage iV, 10% Stage III. I'm pretty sure the other trials actually had healthier patients. I'll double check when I have time.
It doesn't matter, the only valid comparison is with the control arm of this trial. In any case, you can't get much sicker than >90% in stage 4. If patients in all those other trials were sicker then you would expect the MOS for their control arms to be much less than 5.4 months, not greater.