And some brighter news ... Neo-POLEM
Finally, our Neo-POLEM trial has commenced and Australian scientists are taking the lead. It will recruit in both the UK and Australia.
Why?
Dr Nic Ede said some time ago ... “a group of world-class GI oncologists approached us wanting to conduct a trial with our PD1-Vaxx.” They had been tracking a number of small trials that were showing some positive effects in a particular type of colorectal cancer.
The plan ... that PD1-Vaxx will work by stimulating the immune system and attach to the patient’s cancer ... thus shrinking the cancer.
Because the PD1Vaxx is administered prior to surgery (in this case 3 doses) it is referred to as ‘neoadjuvant therapy’ (NT). The ultimate goal of NT is ... “optimise the success rate of the main treatment and make it less invasive”.
In the words of the English surgeons ... “Early-stage colon cancer that has spread to the local lymph nodes is best treated with surgery and chemotherapy, however, half of patients treated will have subsequent recurrence of their cancer. If this happens the cancer is often incurable.” So, if the cancer is of a ‘manageable’ size, then the chances of a successful treatment are great increased.
In Leslie's words today ... "This trial builds upon compelling early evidence that immunotherapy can deliver significant benefits in this patient population"
The other pluses ...
• Neo-POLEM is an Investigator Sponsored Trial (IST). These surgeons are so excited about the potential of Neo-POLEM that they are covering the costs of the trial. Imugene has NOT asked them to run the trial, they will just supply the vaccine.
• The trial is ‘open label’. The surgeons, and us (shareholders), will know fairly early in the trial, how the patients are progressing. I believe it will be fairly obvious. Yes, follow-up will take a couple of years, but if it’s working ... its working, and then there will be huge interest from key surgeons around the world.
• If a neoadjuvant therapy improves their chances of success, or in fact if just makes the ‘inoperable’ now ‘operable’ then this treatment will be widely adopted, and become very valuable.
• It has the potential to become ‘first-line’ treatment. Most of our other treatments are looking to salvage patients that have undergone 4 and 5 lines of treatment, and many here know the ‘side effects’ of a chemotherapy.
As I said, finally some brighter news ... with huge potential.
As always, just the opinion of poster.
(20min delay)