One of the constant complaints I hear fro men with advanced prostate cancer that has become castrate resistant about Provenge (sipuleucel-T) is that the anticipated increase in overall survival is only 4.1 months and given the cost of $93,000 for the three infusions many men feel that cost does not justify the survival benefit.
My initial response to this issue came in my posts:
Provenge, It Isn’t Over Priced, Its Actually A Bargain Basement Product and
Can Our Society Find Its Way To An Honest Dialogue About The Price Of A Human Life?.
Since that time I have expanded my argument because the actual survival advantage might be even longer than the numbers used to obtain the FDA approval. I wrote about the “crossover” when men who had been in the control group went on to receive a frozen version of Provenge (also known as APC8015F or Frovenge), but were still considered to be in the control group or as if they had not received Provenge.
At the AUA Meeting – Does Provenge Provide Better Survival Numbers?
Also not often discussed is what seems to be an extraordinary survival advantage gained by