Prostate Cancer Provenge® Immunotherapy
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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.
Provenge is an FDA-approved treatment that uses the body's own immune system to fight the disease. This is also known as autologous cellular immunotherapy. The immune system is made up of immune cells that are found in your own blood. These cells work as the body's natural defense against all types of illness, including prostate cancer.
Since Provenge is an immunotherapy treatment that helps the immune system fight disease, each dose is made specifically for each patient. The personalized dose of Provenge consists of the patient’s own immune cells that have been trained to seek and attack prostate cancer cells. By stimulating the natural ability of immune cells already in the blood, Provenge may improve a patient's prognosis.
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
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