anti PD1 update from Moffitt

Our trip to Moffitt went well...more on that later.  Here is the best data I was able to glean from the coordinator and NP I saw on this visit. (Weber was out of town.)

According to their reports...all the patients in the resected 1mg, 3mg, and 10 mg/kg groups of this trial continue to do well with the exceptions of the patients who had to drop off early on that I have already talked about.  One patient that I've mentioned before CONTINUES to show improvement/regression of the tumors that initially progressed, despite, STILL, having been given no other treatment.  Apparently, this has fostered discussions of whether or not the maintenance doses that I and others are taking at this point are even needed.  At any rate, I am very pleased for that person and what that says about the potential of MDX-1106.  On  a slightly more worrisome note, some of the patients in the 3mg/kg group are dealing with more side effects than have been experienced in my cohort.  I've already mentioned one patient that had swelling of the optic nerve with subsequent vision impairment that was, I'm told, relieved by steroids.  Additionally, there have been 2 patients with colitis (1 currently in hospital) and 2 episodes of pneumonitis. The 10mg/kg group has only two patients who have begun dosing (one is only 2 treatments in) though we were assured that the cohort is now full, lacking at most, only one unfilled spot, though our sources suspected that it was filled as well. So...as yet it is unclear what, if any, side effects those folks may experience at the increased dose.  On a positive note, if this works like ipi....the patients given 10mg/kg did much better as far as tumor burden and regression than the patients with 3mg...but did experience greater side effects.

A slightly narcissistic thought/question....  I had a really pretty bad "asthma" flare around Christmas, after my last infusion on December 9.  Also some of my scans have shown white patchy stuff in my lungs, that we have attributed to my asthma.  Sort of makes me wonder if it was really a very mild pneumonitis all along.  We'll pay more attention to what my lungs do in the next couple of weeks to see if there is a pattern there.

Given some of the questions that have been posted re: results for patients on the Cure Tech version of anti-PD1 we asked about those patients as well.  We learned:  100 patients were placed on the trial nationally.  Moffitt acquired 4 slots.  Currently 1 slot remains open because the patient that was to take it failed the lymphocyte criteria.  Nationally, we were told, that the Cure Tech trial is "closed", "since the slots are filled".  Nationally, the best response so far is only "stable disease....with some who have progressed".  "There have been no patients with regression."  At Moffitt, there has been stable disease in their 3 patients.




Overall, we were told that "it appears that anti-PD1 holds a great deal of promise" since patients like me (ie stage IV...and we all know...there is no stage V!!!!!!) are still alive and kicking at this point.

MARCH FORTH....there is hope.  3/4/12 - C