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huffingtonpost A new hope for prostrate cancer patients as the Food and Drug Administration approved a new type of treatment from Dendreon Corp. Provenge, a new form of immune therapy, is approved for certain men with advanced prostate cancer who have failed treatment with hormone therapy. It is designed to use a patient’s own cells to stimulate the body’s immune system to fight the cancer. The vaccine combines a protein that is found in most prostate cancer cells with a substance that helps the immune system recognize the cancer as a threat. In clinical trials, Provenge was well tolerated: the most common adverse events that were reported were fever and chills lasting for one to two days. This has also shown significant survival benefit for patients who have metastatic androgen-independent prostate cancer, when compared to patients receiving placebo. In 2007, the FDA rejected Provenge despite an unanimous vote in favor of the treatment. At the time, the FDA said the two clinical studies submitted didn’t meet study goals of reducing so-called time to progression, or the advancement, of cancer. But an analysis of one of those studies showed those receiving Provenge lived about 4.5 months longer than men not receiving the treatment. Still, the FDA asked for more data, which Dendreon later submitted. That data, which involved 512 patients, showed an increase in overall survival of 4.1 months among those receiving Provenge. The median survival for patients receiving Provenge treatments was 25.8 months, compared to 21.7 months for those who did not receive the treatment. The company’s stock was halted for news pending at shortly after 12:30 p.m. EDT, but was trading up 15% to $45.50 at the time after earlier hitting a new high. PROVENGE: New Hope For Prostrate Cancer Patients is a post from: Daily World Buzz Continue reading →