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New vaccine for prostate cancer disease
Good news regarding prolonging life for those fighting with prostate cancer is coming from the
results of a study led by researchers at the University of California at San Francisco made public
on February 2005 at a prostate cancer symposium in Orlando.
A very innovative treatment for prostate cancer has been found for the first time to prolong the
lives of sufferers with this male disease, the most common form of cancer among aged men.
The new treatment uses a person's own immune system and act like a vaccine.
The vaccine, which is called Provenge, is being developed by Dendreon, a Seattle-based biotechnology company.
The above mentioned study involved 127 men with prostate cancer and who no longer responded to
the conventional treatment by hormone therapy, but who had not yet experienced any form pd disease pain..
For three years patients were given either the vaccine or a placebo in three doses over a six-week period.
Those patients who received the vaccine survived, on average, for 25.9 months, compared with 21.4 months
for men who received a placebo,
After three years, three times as many vaccine patients were still alive, compared with the placebo group
The study concluded that cancer "vaccine" increased survival, on average, by 4.5 months among men with
severe and advanced prostate cancer who no longer responded to other therapies.
This is not a significant improvement in prolonging life by a few months, but the study represents an important
validation for cancer vaccines and a little hope for patients without many options that can be developed by
further contributions.
NOTE: The Information on this site is provided for information only, and is not meant to substitute for
the advice of your own physician or other medical professional.
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