Loading...
Men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) typically survive about 1 to 2 years after progression on hormonal therapy. Until 2010, only one chemotherapy drug — docetaxel — had been shown to prolong the survival of these patients (by about 2 to 3 months) when used with prednisone (JW Oncol Hematol Feb 5 2008). The rationale for developing cancer immunotherapy — to eradicate cancer cells — has always been strong. However, finding an effective immunotherapy has not been easy.
In April 2010, the FDA approved a therapeutic cancer vaccine called sipuleucel-T (Provenge). This agent uses dendritic cells specific to an antigen, prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP), which is fused to granulocyte–macrophage colony-stimulating factor. B…