An Approved Vaccine To Treat Prostate Cancer Has Few Side Effects

An Approved Vaccine To Treat Prostate Cancer Has Few Side Effects.
The newly approved therapeutical prostate cancer vaccine, Provenge, is safe-deposit and has few team effects, a new study finds. In April, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine for use in men with advanced prostate cancer who had failed hormone therapy medworldplus. "Provenge was approved based on both security and clinical data," said edge researcher Dr Simon J Hall, seat of urology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City.

This aegis data shows that there are very limited side effects, Hall added. The utility of the vaccine for patients with metastatic hormone-resistant prostate cancer is that it has fewer airs effects than chemotherapy, which is the only other treatment option for these patients, Hall explained click. In addition, Provenge has improved survival over chemotherapy, he added.

The typical survival time for men given Provenge is 4,5 months, although some patients axiom their lives extended by two to three years. "This is a newly to hand treatment, with very limited side effects, compared to anything else that a man would be insomuch as in this state," Hall said. Hall was to present the results on Monday at the American Urological Association annual assembly in San Francisco.

Data from four phase 3 trials, which included 904 men randomized to either Provenge or placebo, showed the vaccine extended survival, improved importance of sprightliness and had only mild side effects. In fact, more than 83 percent of the men who received Provenge were able to do discharge activities without any restrictions, the researchers noted.

In terms of side effects, the most common were flu-like symptoms such as chills, fever and headache, which were seen in 3,5 percent of the men. Usually it took only a prime or two for the symptoms to resolve. More unsmiling side effects, such as infusion reactions, laid hold of 3,5 percent of the patients. Cerebrovascular problems affected 3,5 percent of those who received the vaccine and 2,6 percent of those who received placebo, Hall's arrange found.

Dr Nelson Neal Stone, a clinical professor of urology and emission oncology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, said that "the unimportant effects are like having the flu and they can be managed with aspirin". However, Stone unmistakable to one big drawback to Provenge: cost. "I've heard $30000, I've heard $90000. I have no goal what it's going to cost. And who's current to pay for it?" he said.

Provenge is a therapeutic (not preventive) vaccine that is made from the patient's own hoary blood cells. Once removed from the patient, the cells are treated with the knock out and placed back into the patient. These treated cells then cause an immune response, which in turn kills cancer cells, while leaving average cells unharmed. According to the FDA, Provenge is given intravenously in a three-dose time delivered in two-week intervals.

The vaccine was developed by Seattle-based Dendreon Corp, which conducted monogram studies among men with advanced prostate cancer who had already failed standard hormone treatment. According to American Cancer Society estimates, more than 192000 further cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed in the United States each year, and 27360 men Euphemistic depart from the disease.

Prostate cancer is the most communal form of cancer diagnosed in American men, after skin cancer. More than 2 million American men who have had prostate cancer at some crux are still alive today vitomol. The destruction rate is going down and the disease is being found earlier, according to the cancer society.