Sponsored by
(Disclaimer: Tocagen is a small sponsor of the Musella Foundation, and the Musella Foundation funded part of this trial)
I was at the SNO meeting where these results were presented. They showed how every patient (there were 60 patients) who ever took this treatment is doing. Since this was the first time this treatment was used in people, they had to start off with very low doses of the virus, then as they saw it was safe, they moved on to higher and higher dosages. They have not had safety problems so far. The trial was only designed to see if the treatment was safe and to find the right dosage level, so they plan to study efficacy in future studies. However, they showed evidence of antitumor activity and looking at the chart of how patients are doing, some of the patients are alive long past where we would expect them to survive historically.
They showed me the small group of patients that the Musella Foundation funded - (Oligodendrogliomas and anaplastic astrocytoma) and luckily most (about 75%) of these patients are still alive and doing well.
Bottom line, I think this is a worthwhile trial to consider for people with recurrent high grade gliomas .