Prostate Cancer Provenge® Immunotherapy
Learn More About Provenge: Chat with Us | Email Us
Provenge® for Prostate Cancer
Provenge® is an immunotherapy treatment for prostate cancer that harnesses the power of the patient’s own immune system to identify and target prostate cancer cells. Each dose is manufactured specifically for each patient using his immune cells.
Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) is among the first sites in the nation to treat advanced prostate cancer patients with Provenge, the first FDA-approved autologous cellular immunotherapy.
How Does Provenge Immunotherapy Work?
Cancer cells are your own body’s cells, so the immune system isn’t primed to attack them. Cancer cells continue to grow because the immune system doesn’t know it’s something it should be fighting.
A vaccine takes a sample of those cancer cells, and alters them in a laboratory so the immune system can recognize them as foreign and destroy them. The cells are then given back to you as vaccines injected into the arm, as an infusion.
The body attacks the cancer cells and, at the same time, develops an immune memory of the cells. If cancer develops again, there is a greater likelihood the immune system will attack the new cancer cell and prevent it from growing.
What Types of Prostate Cancer Does Provenge Immunotherapy Treat?
- Asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic metastatic castrate resistant (hormone refractory) prostate cancer
- Patients cannot have moderate to severe prostate cancer pain (or be on narcotics for cancer-related pain)
- Metastases must be limited to bone or soft tissue only (no lung, liver or brain metastases)
- Patients cannot have had chemotherapy in the previous three months
- The patient must be able to perform tasks necessary for daily living
Provenge immunotherapy treatment typically takes six weeks, and is administered in three infusions every two weeks
Next Topic: Nutrition Therapy for Prostate Cancer
