Prostate Cancer advocates continue to press the FDA to approve Provenge by staging marches in Washington and Chicago as well as continuing to add their names to Malecare’s Action Letter. The advocacy has even caught the attention of the major news services, which have been carrying many stories about the efforts of the prostate community.

CNBC, which is covering the annual ASCO meetings (American Society of Clinical Oncology), interviewed John Walker, Interim CEO of Novacea about their experimental drug Ascent-2. Ascent-2 has demonstrated, in a large 900 patient placebo study, that it increases survival rates by 49% while also reducing side effects by 33% when used in combination with Taxotere with men who have androgen independent prostate cancer. The interview become even more interesting when Huckman, who was interviewing Walker asked about the conflict of interest charges that have been leveled at Novacea’s lead researcher, Dr. Howard Scher.

Listen to this interview by clicking this link

ABC World News Tonight has also aired a story about the frustrations experienced by those of us who are androgen independent and had been counting on the FDA’s approval of Provenge.

Watch this video

Joel T Nowak MA, MSW