OPT 821 vaccine

rose_marie said:

Clinical Trial
Today was my second vaccine and again just a little redness at the site. Next Friday is vaccine #3.
My husband was asking the clinical trial coordinator this afternoon as to how many others are in this same trial. At Stanford there are only 6, but nationwide there are 56 that qualified out of 100+
Forgive me, but is the CVAC and OPT821 the same trial? This is so new to me and also very confusing.
Have a great weekend and let us see ourselves and our sisters, cancer free!
Sincerely,
Rosemarie

SNA said:

GOG 0255
Rosemarie: You must be talking about the GOG 0255 Trial. I am considering this Trial now. Where are you doing this? At what location. Do you know much about the OPT-821? Is it the same as QS-21? Because I heard OPT-821 is the same as QS-21 which can have bad side effects, like Ephacema. Anyway you can check this one out? Much Thanks and Very Best of Luck and a Very Happy and Healthy New Year.

SNA

evertheoptimist said:

Based on what I read, OPT
Based on what I read, OPT 821 is an immune enhancing drug, not a vaccine. KHL is the vaccine. This trial is highly similar to the one Carlene is on - the one for those high risk patients in their first remission. I was on this trial but flunked out of it since I recurred. Differences between the two trials:

(1) Unlike Carlene's trial, OPT 821 is for those who are in remission after successful treatment for recurrent disease.

(2) OPT trial is a randomized trial. you get OPT-821 for sure. But you may or may not get the KLH vaccine. Carlene's trial is a Phase I trial: everybody gets both QS 21 (equivalent to OPT 821) and the vaccine.

(3) in carlene's trial, QS 21, instead of OPT 821, is used as an immune enhancing drug. Biologically they sound very similar: made out of the same base material (forget the name).


(4) KLH sounds very similar to the vaccine in Carlene's trial, except, KLH contains mucin 1. Carelen's trial vaccine does not (based on what's written).

There is another trial - his one is only available at Memorial Sloan Kettering since it's not a national multi center trial. It's essentially same as the KLH trial except it comes with Avastin and it's a phase 1 trial: everybody gets all three: OPT 821, KLH, and Avastin.

I am in treatment for my recurrence, and so far, it's going well. Suppose I manage to go into remission again, I would like to participate in some type of immunotherapy related trial for recurrence prevention. Alas, the OPT/KLH trial seems to made of very similar stuff I was on previously and probably not the right ones for me since they did not work for me.

I will have to discuss this with my doctor at MSKCC: this fellow is in charge of all three trials at MSKCC (carlene's, national OPT/KLH, and MSKCC only OPT/KHL/Avastin), so he is the best one to tell me whether there is still sufficient difference between the trial I failed on and any of these trials that it's worth for me to try again.

evertheoptimist said:

LQ,thanks for clarifying
LQ,

thanks for clarifying the KLH stuff. You are right. I was just using the term to lump the whole "compound" together (vaccine plus the extra protein that makes it work better).

regarding the concern about immune enhancing drug, my reading is a bit different. There is SO MUCH unknowns about this whole field, even the researchers do not know what works and what does not.

I can't gainsay your statement one way or another: what I read so far is leading me to conclude differently from you (that is, I am more gong ho about this approach), but I don't know whether I am right or not conclusively. It could be that you are absolutely on a right track, and I am not.

I only have an impression and hunch based on some discussions I had with acquaintances with bio chemistry background and working in the medical field plus whatever I managed to read so far. Some of the data I have seen have not been published anywhere: I had access to them since one of the people I talked to was a venture capitalist who is funding the medical startup developing the immunotherapy treatment for late stage cancer patients (the VC himself is a cancer survivor and he is the company's subject number 1. Complete remission. However, we all know that experiment of 1 does not prove anything. Yet, I was mighty impressed).

When I recurred, I was on a trial consisting of Doxil and another immune enhancing drug. I was booted off of it because they said "disease progression" while on treatment. I, on the other hand, felt that the trial treatment was working VERY WELL - long story. I proved that I was right but the protocol is protocol, and they judge the progress by only one yardstick. I got booted off anyway. While I was on that trial, I REALLY felt that the immune enhancing drug VTX 2337 was working VERY WELL. Another long story, but I have by now what I call cancer meter and I can feel when the tumors are getting worse or getting better. Again, no objective proof. Other than this: I am so in tune with my body, when cancer came back visible with multiple tumors on the scan only 4 weeks after a CA125 of 8, I already knew before any new CA125 test or scan that it's coming back. In fact, I already felt that it's coming back merely a week after a CA125 of 8, and my CA125 is a very good market, meaning, it's not staying low when there is already cancer: so I am pretty confident that when it was 8, I was still NED. It goes up and down with cancer in a perfect unison. I really felt that every time I got the VTX 2337 shot, my cancer activities were going down.

This whole field is so much an unknown territory. Everybody, in the end, has to make a decision one way or the other without perfectly clear guidelines and information.

I still feel that if I were to do a maintenance therapy, it will be something in the immunotherapy angle.

Good luck to everyone in their effort to come up with a solution that works for them.

evertheoptimist said:

LQ,
ah, the holy grail of
LQ,

ah, the holy grail of microenvironment - the terrain issue, that is.

I fully subscribe to this concept, and in fact, I am eating as healthy as anyone can possibly stomach and exercise, etc.

However, my cancer came back aggressively while I was doing all this, so I feel I need something else too. I still do not have any regrets for my healthy choices and will maintain them. Other than cancer, I am perfectly healthy (funny thing to say, right?) and my body is robust enough to handle any punishing chemo, and I believe that my healthy choices contribute mightily to this. If I were to be a long term survivor, I will end up going through many rounds of treatment, and keeping my body as healthy as can be with a healthy habit has an enormous survival value even if it is not keeping cancer at bay in and of itself.