UPDATE 2-Oncothyreon's cancer vaccine well-tolerated in long use

* Prolonged treatment with Stimuvax well-tolerated

* No evidence of autoimmune reactions with prolonged use

* Shares rise 35 pct to a near two-year high (Adds analyst comments, updates share movement)

By Jennifer Robin Raj

BANGALORE, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Oncothyreon Inc (ONTY.O) said a long-term follow-up study showed that prolonged treatment with its cancer vaccine Stimuvax was well-tolerated among patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), sending its shares up as much as 35 percent.

There was no evidence of autoimmune reactions with prolonged use and the most common treatment-related adverse events were injection-site reactions, which tended to diminish after the first year of treatment, the company said.

"Today's data are very promising, and make us incrementally more bullish on Stimuvax's long-term potential in non-small cell lung cancer and breast cancer," Rodman and Renshaw analyst Simos Simeonidis.

The long-term follow-up study involved 16 patients who received treatment with Stimuvax for between 2 and 8.2 years as part of a mid-stage trial and as of April, ten of the 16 studied patients were alive without evidence of disease progression.

"In the 171-patient mid-stage trial, there were 32 stage IIIb NSCLC patients who received Stimuvax. What today's data means is that 9 out of these 32 patients, or 28 percent, were alive 6 years later," analyst Simeonidis said.

"For a comparison, the average five-year survival for NSCLC is around the 10 percent mark," he said, adding that for six-year survival, it is lesser.

Rodman and Renshaw makes a market in Oncothyreon.

The mid-stage trial of Stimuvax was conducted by Oncothyreon, with patient enrollment concluding in 2003. Long-term follow-up of these patients was conducted by Merck KGaA (MRCG.DE), which assumed the clinical development of Stimuvax in 2007.

Merck KGaA is currently conducting late-stage trials of Stimuvax in both NSCLC and breast cancer.

Shares of Oncothyreon were up 30 percent at $6.03 in afternoon trade on Monday. They rose as much as 35 percent to a near two-year high of $6.25 earlier in the session.

(Editing by Aradhana Aravindan)