In anticipation of Halloween, let’s crank up the volume on the celebrated song “Monster Mash” by Bobby “Boris” Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers about a mad scientist who throws a party for monsters, including Dracula, Dracula’s son, the Wolfman, and Igor.
Tumors are a literal monster mash because of all the differences that exist between its abhorrent, disfigured cells even within the same tumor. These differences make it hard to treat and to target all the tumor cells. If all tumor cells are not eradicated, then recurrence is a “fait accompli” or “done deal.”
For lead EpicentRx therapy, AdAPT-001, the harder tumors are to treat with conventional therapies including with checkpoint inhibitors, and the more recurrences that have previously occurred, the better AdAPT-001 seems to perform, which makes it really and truly sui generis, if confirmed in an upcoming Phase 3 clinical trial.
In the Phase 2 clinical trial called BETA PRIME, the combination of AdAPT-001 plus a checkpoint inhibitor has achieved a high rate of durable responses and even remissions for > 1 year even if that same checkpoint inhibitor was previously inactive in an earlier line of therapy. Even better, some of these tumors decreased in size enough to be surgically removed, which is potentially curative, if all the cancer cells are removed.
Can we get a “WOW! please?” Seriously, it really deserves one as over the top as this. Whatever our level of excitement, and you can believe that it is through the roof, patients and their families must be doubly pleased and excited. How could they not be? After all, this is GREAT, GREAT news.
So great that this Halloween we fully expect them to dress up and dance to the Monster Mash.