Prostate cancer vaccine is coming soon

The FDA event will approve this week's prostate cancer vaccine as an important milestone in preventing disease and cancer in general, US health experts said.

Provenge created by white blood cells that have been "treated"

Provenge's prostate cancer vaccine, Provenge, will extend the chances of survival for men at risk of prostate cancer without causing any serious side effects associated with chemotherapy. , radiation therapy or hormone therapy.

A special feature is that this vaccine is not for people who have not had the disease yet but it is used to treat people who already have the disease. 'Provenge demonstrates the progress of medicine in saving the lives of people with prostate cancer, but this drug does not slow the progression of the disease , ' said Dr. J. Len Lichtenfield, deputy medical director of the American Cancer Society said.

Provenge is used for the first stage of prostate cancer patients, the time when treatment is most effective. Scientists hope that if a vaccine is effective at the end of the disease, it will also be more effective in treating the same disease at an early stage.

Provenge is a curative (non-preventive) vaccine made from the patient's own white blood cells. After taking the white blood cells from the patient's body, these cells will be treated with the drug and returned to the patient's body. These intervened cells will create a new immune reaction that will destroy cancer cells, while normal cells are not affected.

Provenge developed by Seattle-based Dendreon from a number of early studies on cancer patients who do not meet normal hormone therapy. In these men, the vaccine will help prolong the average life of 4.5 months, some patients will survive for 2-3 years. The only side effect is flu-like symptoms (moderate), according to research results.

In 2007, a hearing sent to the FDA asked the organization to certify Provenge, but the FDA said it needed more data before it could prove it was a drug.

If the drug is approved, the use is likely to be limited in men with advanced prostate cancer. And the price is about 75,000 dollars.

Source: Healthday