The follow-up data was taken after nearly six years and demonstrated that the disease did not progress in the patients for an average of 37.7 months after the end of their chemotherapy. This compares to similar studies of patients who had chemotherapy alone whose disease progressed after a median of just 15 months.
Nine of the 21 patients in this trial remained progression-free as of their last clinical follow-up at 56 to 78 months post-chemotherapy. Four of the eight patients in the trial considered to be at high risk of disease progression, and four of the 11 patients considered to be at “intermediate” risk of disease progression remained in remission as of their last clinical follow-up.
“These results suggest that MyVax personalized immunotherapy may be altering the natural history of the disease for nearly half the patients treated by inducing long-term remissions, even in patients anticipated to have poorer prognoses,” said Dr John Timmerman, one of the principal investigators for the clinical trial and assistant professor, UCLA Medical Center.