Key Take Aways
- The current share price of NWBO is undeserved.
- The Journal of Transitional Medicine Article on the progress DCVAX-L is having in the treatment of cancer patients with glioblastoma is becoming well known among medical professionals and cancer society advocates.
- For those not familiar with those articles or blogs written by medical professionals or cancer society advocates, I have attached their quotations and key paragraphs
In what may be described by me as one of the crimes of the century, the share price for Northwest Biotherapeutics (NWBO) continues to fall, frustrating not only investors but also damaging NWBO which is attempting to save the lives of cancer patients along the way . But you will see from the several attached articles below this descent in share price is undeserved. In my last Steemit article "Don't Miss Out on the Opportunity of a Life Time (NWBO DCVAX-L) https://steemit.com/nwbo/@moonknight1977/don-t-miss-out-on-the-opportunity-of-a-lifetime-nwbo-dcvax-l I described the huge upside potential of investing in NWBO stock and potential positive windfall upon success.
While the majority of reviews I received on my previous article were positive, one non-invested individual who spends a good deal of time on NWBO blog sites wrote 5 separate posts on Investor Village hating on my article. (I was actually quite flattered he took the time to address my article at all since he is well versed in FUD.) He critiqued everything from me being a 1st time author to not doing enough due diligence (sorry I did forget to list other authors such as Barnuuk, Lepercon7777, Boshie, and Zach Hartman's recent change of opinion in the article https://seekingalpha.com/article/4179056-northwest-bios-big-data-change-game).
For this article, I have copied several statements, quotations and blogs from doctors, cancer treatment societies, and the NY Daily News who have covered DCVAX-L and the current blinded phase III trial. https://t.co/FnnKvQbDDC While it should be noted this is not yet an approved treatment, the conclusion reached by all of these medical professionals and cancer advocates is the same "Addition of DCVax-L to standard therapy is feasible and safe in glioblastoma patients, and may extend survival." (Journal of Transitional Medicine). After reading the articles and blogs posted below I believe one can see the potential efficacy and possible speculation that the final unblinded results could exceed the numbers posted in the Journal of Transitional Medicine, thus making the current share price undeserved and way undervalued for what will in my opinion be a life changing treatment for most cancer patients with glioblastoma.
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"Good news is that this method is already in the last stages of development, and it has shown excellent results in a randomized, blind clinical trial. In these trials, the DCVax-L vaccine was given to 232 patients at various sites. This trial has not yet ended, but the initial results clearly show the higher survival rate. Around 30% of those who got this vaccine survived more than 30 months, and one-fourth survived more than 36 months. At present, 32.6% of those enrolled in the trial are still alive, and they are expected to live between 46.5 to 88.2 months. At present, the vaccine is not a curative treatment, but it provides serious benefits in comparison to traditional methods.
It has taken more than two decades to perfect the vaccine, and researchers believe that things will only get better in the future. In the very near future, we can expect to see much higher 5-year survival rates for glioblastoma patients, and that would already mark a big success." (Viatcheslav Wlassoff, PhD, August 15, 2018)
https://siteman.wustl.edu/brain-cancer-vaccine-effective-in-some-patients/
“The overall patient population in the trial appears to live longer than we would typically see with current standard of care, and 30 percent of the patients have lived much longer than we would expect, given the typical course of this cancer,” said oncologist Jian L. Campian, MD, PhD, one of the study’s authors and a Washington University assistant professor of medicine who treats patients at Siteman Cancer Center. “In general, patients with this cancer live 15 to 17 months. The surprising part was that the 100 ‘extended survivors’ don’t appear to have the usual characteristics associated with a good prognosis. We are continuing to study these patients to understand why they have done so well.” (Julia Evangelou Strait , May 30, 2018)
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/ny-fea-glioblastoma-clinical-trial-20180605-story.html
Quote:
"The survival rate is quite remarkable compared to what would be expected for glioblastoma," Dr. Linda Liau, chair of the neurosurgery department at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a member of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, said in a release.
The current survival rate for patients diagnosed with glioblastoma is 15 to 17 months with less than 5% making it to five years.
For the purposes of the eight-year study, glioblastoma patients at 80 locations across the world first underwent standard glioblastoma treatment protocol — surgery to resect the tumor followed by chemotherapy. The group of about 430 was then divided into two: one received the immunotherapy vaccine (about 230 people) made of their own cells and then other (nearly 100), a placebo.
"The unique thing about the DCVax-L vaccine is that this doesn't target a single antigen," Liau said. "This treatment actually uses the patient's own tumor specimen to make the vaccine. This is really a form of personalized immunotherapy that is customized to an individual patient and his/her tumor."
The researchers found that the average survival rate of those receiving the vaccine jumped to over 23 months. Another 30% of patients lived for more than 30 months and just under 25% survived for 36 months.
“What's particularly impressive about immunotherapy trials is that there seems to be a population of about 20 to 30% of patients who are living significantly longer than expected,” Liau said. “And those are the people in whom we think there may be a particularly strong immune response against their cancer that is protecting them from getting tumor reoccurrence.” (Ariel Scotti , June 05, 2018)
https://virtualtrials.com/newsarticle.cfm?item=6516
Quote:
Editor's (Al Musella, DPM, President Musella Foundation) Comments:
"This article reports the interim results of the DCVax phase 3 trial. This was a large, blinded, randomized trial where initially 2/3 of the newly diagnosed patients received the vaccine and 1/3 received a placebo. At the time of recurrence, patients were allowed to cross over and take the vaccine. Most chose to take it, so almost 90% of the patients in the trial had the vaccine, either as newly diagnosed or recurrent.
The results are unbelievably good. These numbers include patients who did not get the vaccine at all and those who got it after recurrence – so they are probably lower than the final numbers will be.
Among all patients who started the trial, the median overall survival from time of first surgery was 23.1 months.. The previous best reported results in large trials, were about 22 months for Optune combined with Temodar, and about 16-17 months for Temodar alone and about 15-16 months for Temodar combined with Avastin.
To look at the long term survival tail, they looked at patients who started the trial over 3 years ago Of those first 182 patients, (including those on standard of care plus placebo) 44 of them (24%) lived over 3 years, and the Kaplan-Meier median survival estimate for these patients is an amazing 88.2 months. Historically less than 10% of GBM patients live 3 years or longer.
Of the 331 people in the trial, 100 are classified as "extended survivors" who lived an average of 40.5 months, with a few living more than 7 years. This is unheard of with Glioblastomas.
These are interim numbers, and they could get better or worse with time as the data matures and they unblind to analyze those who got the vaccine as newly diagnosed. However, even these interim results are good enough in my opinion that GBM patients should be clamoring to get this.
They report on subgroups that have even better results, but the results on the entire group are enough to say it is worth using for a glioblastoma patient even without looking at the subgroups. That is a sign that the treatment is working.
The key is that this is a simple shot in the arm with minimal side effects and very little disruption in the life of the patient. Before radiation, they obtain immune cells through a blood draw process that takes a few hours but is only done one time to produce enough vaccine for the entire course of treatment. A fresh or frozen tumor sample is also needed, as this vaccine is custom made to each patient’s tumor. Then there are 6 injections in the arm the first year, then only 2 per year after the first year. These injections are similar to the flu vaccine – a quick relatively painless job, not hours on an infusion unit. It does not cause you to lose your hair, become nauseous, or interfere with your blood counts.
This is only the beginning. Theoretically, DCVax can be combined with other treatments to make it work better. We need this treatment available now. If you are interested in it, contact me and we will fight together to get access quicker. " (Al Musella)
"This week The Charity submitted its patient organization consultation response about the potentially-groundbreaking new treatment DCVax®-L.
This response will contribute towards the National Institute for health and Care Excellence's (NICE) technology appraisal of the innovative dendritic cell treatment..
You may remember that DCVax®-L hit the headlines back in May 2018, when a clinical trial testing its effectiveness showed increased overall survival for patients with glioblastoma.
The treatment, developed by Northwest Biotherapeutics, underwent testing in a phase 3 clinical trial which consisted of 331 individuals with a glioblastoma.
Interim results showed increased overall survival for patients with the majority of trial participants (86.4%) receiving the treatment.
Specifically, patients who received DCVax®-L showed an increased median overall survival rate of 23.1 months compared to a median overall survival rate between 15-17 months for patients receiving only the current standard of treatment. " (thebraintumourcharity.org)
Author's note: This article is all my opinion and should not be relied upon for predictive behavior or outcome of any stock or its drug approval status by the FDA. It is all my opinion. You can follow me on Twitter @TheMoonknight77 where I mainly follow NWBO, send prayers for cancer patients and post Steemit articles on topics which I enjoy. Yes I am NWBO Long and a share holder.