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Living with Prostate Cancer

Provenge

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A new treatment for men with advanced prostate cancer is the therapeutic vaccine Provenge (sipuleucel-T). The FDA's approval is limited to "the treatment of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic prostate cancer that has spread to other parts of the body and is resistant to standard hormone treatment."

This treatment is delivered through a complicated process called leukopheresis, where the disease-fighting white blood cells are filtered out of the body, stimulated in a laboratory externally with a prostate cancer protein called PAP, boosted with an immune protein called GM-CSF, and then given back to the man three times over 6 weeks as an intravenous infusion, much like a blood transfusion. Current studies have shown an improvement in survival for this product when given prior to chemotherapy in men with metastatic prostate cancer that is resistant to hormonal therapies.

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