“These are very complementary positive trials,” Dr. Pope said. “We don’t want to kill 10% of our patients who don’t have perceived high chance of mortality in the next 5 years. ... These patients are highly selected, but I think it gives our patients hope and, for some of my patients, this will be a treatment for them.”
The long-term efficacy is also encouraging in that new but less potent treatments might yield good long-term results without the early deaths, she said. “It gives an idea and hope, and it helps us to understand that maybe with immune modulation, without the nuclear blast of stem cell transplant, maybe we can do better for our patients.”
Dr. Pope reported relevant financial relationships with Actelion, Bayer, Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Roche.