Media Thread, page-11678

Hi Footmax,

Thanks for posting the article titled ... “Experts Forecast 2024, Part 1: Advances in Cancer Vaccines” it is an interesting ‘read’.

Dr Catherine Wu, a highly respected professor of oncology at Harvard makes several interesting points around where cancer vaccines might be heading.

She expands on some of the issues centred around ‘auto’ treatments stating that they are ... “costly, both in terms of time and money. “It takes quite a bit of effort to generate the sequencing data to evaluate each patient’s unique cancer and then design a vaccine in real time based on the data,” she explained. “On top of that, you have the cost of manufacturing a tailored vaccine.” She is correct on all points.

Interestingly, she doesn’t mention the issues that the FDA has recently highlighted around autologous (auto) CAR-T treatments. In January, the Food and Drug Administration told several drug makers to add a boxed warning, which is the agency’s strongest safety label, to the prescribing information for ‘auto’ type CAR-T therapies. I must say I am surprised that this issue was overlooked by Wu ... it makes me wonder if there is a hidden motive. Maybe, maybe not. I can get a little suspicious if truth be told.

She does go on to suggest “that vaccines may make immunologically inert tumours (the so-called ‘cold’ tumours) more vulnerable to other forms of immunotherapy. This year, she expects that researchers will continue to evaluate vaccines in combination with different immunotherapies.” Perhaps she is aware of an Oncolytic Virus that turns ‘cold’ tumours into ‘hot’ tumours! I’m certain aware of one.

“She noted that there is also a strong rationale to combine vaccines with CAR T-cell therapy and other cell-based immunotherapies”. Gosh, I wish IMU had thought of this a few yearsago ... no, wait ...

And then, finally, she alludes to the possible issue with the ‘auto’ CAR-Ts ... “I think in the next periodto come, we’re going to see interesting combinations—whether dual, triple, ormore—that address the immune-evasive and immune-suppressive mechanisms that we have to contend with when addressing cancers.”

Well, there it is, in the last paragraph, a nod to the BIG issues with ‘auto’ CAR-Ts. It is these issues that should make Team IMU a lot more confident with azer-cel, our allogenic “allo’ CAR-T which, in Phase 1 trials, has shown significant benefits to leukaemia patients who have regressed after ‘auto’ treatments.

The proof is coming, and who knows, we might even see it in 2024. I’m thinking YES.

Of course, as always, just the opinion of one poster.