Good morning all
It's time for a break from the abysmally boring back and forth with the purblind doomsters. So I encourage everyone to watch this
new presentation by Prof Yuman Fongin a webinar for the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation.
Yuman's presentation is focussed on CF33 and OnCARlytics. It starts at 18:20 and it is
jam packed with interesting observations, as well as some excellent explanation of the science behind Vaxinia and OnCARlytics.
There are also some
nuggets of new information. Of particular interest: we already know of that the two Cholangiocarcinoma patients who commenced the Vaxinia trial, one achieved a Complete Response (all traces of cancer gone) and the other achieved Stable disease (tumour ceased growing). Because Cholangiocarcinoma has such a dismal response to existing treatments that result was beyond expectations and the FDA has granted IMU Fast Track designation for Vaxinia on that basis.
One big question in my mind has been: How durable was the response? (Even "Complete Responses" can reverse quite quickly). I wasn't expecting to find that out for a while, but Yuman confirms (from 33:10) that the CR patient "has been off therapy now for more than a year" - and the slide on screen at that point confirms this, with the statement: "no known recurrence after one year." Yuman also states (confirmed on the slide) that the second patient - who achieved Stable Disease - is still stable after more than 8 months and that both patients are "doing pretty well."
Elsewhere, Yuman states(45:28) that they are designing a trial for Vaxinia against intra-peritoneal cancer, including Cholangiocarcinoma, because that is how some Cholangiocarcinomas progress. This would be a follow up from the very promising pre-clinical/animal studies showing Vaxinia as effective against intra-peritoneal cancers (which are generally very hard to treat). Also a sub-group specific to
Straight after that (45:40) their plan to move into a trial of IT/IV/IP with OnCARlytics plus a CAR-T (or an Antibody drug conjugate) against Cholangio.
In fact - a bit earlier in the presentation Yuman talks at length about CAR-T's. That whole section is fascinating, and it is clear from his comment at 44:30 that he is hoping to see OnCARlytics trialled with an Allogeneic CAR-T. He doesn't mention Azer-Cel specifically - but for sure that is what he is referring to.
There is just so much good information here - I need to listen to it again myself because I haven't caught it all.
Have a listen yourself!
Cheers
Dave
(20min delay)