Cancer Fighters Thrive is a quarterly print and online magazine bringing readers practical, innovative and inspirational information about cancer treatment and survivorship.
Issue link: http://cancerfightersthrive.epubxp.com/i/61344
RESEARCH TODAY RESEARCH TODAY Fighting Back P By Karen Keeler Rogers rovenge® (sipuleucel-T) is an innovative, autologous immu- notherapy vaccine developed by Dendreon Corporation. It was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration just two years ago and, more recently, by Medicare, which now covers its use. It's called a vaccine be- cause it stimulates the patient's immune system to fight prostate cancer cells, and it's called autologous because it's made from the patient's own immune cells. Provenge is not a prostate cancer preven- tive nor does it shrink existing tumors, but research has shown that a full course of Provenge can slow the progression of advanced prostate cancer. "How well Provenge therapy works var- ies by patient," says Evan Pisick, MD, a medical oncologist at Cancer Treatment Centers of America® in Zion, Illinois. "It works best in metastatic cancer patients who have few or no symptoms from the cfthrive.com disease and for whom hormone therapy has failed." PROVENGE REINFORCES THE BODY'S IMMUNE ARSENAL In effect, Provenge trains the body's im- mune cells to seek out and attack pros- tate cancer cells wherever they may be hiding. Because each dose of Provenge is manufactured from a patient's own im- mune cells, each dose is customized for that patient only. To make a dose of Provenge, blood is drawn and some of the patient's immune cells are collected from the sample in a process called leukophoresis. Then, in the manufacturer's laboratory, the im- mune cells are exposed to a specially designed antigen that contains a protein called PAP, which is naturally produced by 95 percent of all prostate cancer cells. Antigens are substances in the blood that the immune system recognizes as foreign. The antigen also contains an immune-stimulating factor, called GM- CSF, which has been shown to slow the metastasis of tumor cells.1 When the immune cells collected from a patient's blood sample are exposed to this antigen mixture in the lab, the cells digest the antigen and display pieces of it on their surface. Next the treated immune cells—which are now a dose of Provenge—are re- turned to the patient intravenously. Once in the bloodstream, the antigen pieces on the surface of the Provenge cells activate certain other immune cells. Then, like tiny, guided missiles, these other im- mune cells are able to seek out, recognize, and attack prostate cancer cells anywhere they may be located. Treatment with Provenge requires three infusions scheduled two weeks apart. Because each dose must be individually summer 2012 | cancer fighters thrive 29 A new vaccine called Provenge is designed to arm your immune system against metastasized prostate cancer.