Media Thread, page-8944

Hi Dave and Dyeman

I would also expect many patients in the MAST trial to have liver cancer.

Liver cancer is an extremely variable thing. It may be "primary", which means it started in the liver, from liver cells which turned cancerous or "secondary", which means the cancer started somewhere else in the body and subsequently spread to the liver and grows there. When there is secondary liver cancer, it is referred to by the cancer's organ of origin. eg metastatic gastric cancer means stomach/gastric cancer which has then spread (metastesized). Treatments like chemo and immunotherapy are chosen in relation to the organ of origin, rather than the metastatic site.

In US and Australia, secondary cancers in the liver vastly outnumber the liver primaries.

IMUs announcement yesterday regarding onCARlytics with ARTEMIS T cells was looking at the effect on hepatocellular cancer (HCC). This is a "primary" liver cancer.

As secondary liver cancer is much more common and a very common site of metastatic cancer, I would expect a substantial proportion of patients in the MAST study would have secondary liver cancer. I think there would be only a very few with primary liver cancer.

With regard to liver function, it's very surprising how the function of the liver can be quite well preserved, even when there is a substantial amount of tumour within it. The function is affected more if the tumours are in a critical region in the liver, obstructing the vital drainage of the liver's output. Hope that makes sense. The function can also be affected by treatments such as chemotherapy.

Cheers