It was announced today by Dendreon Corp. that the European Commission (EC) has granted marketing authorization for Provenge in the European Union (EU) for the treatment of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic metastatic (non-visceral) castrate resistant prostate cancer in male adults in whom chemotherapy is not yet clinically indicated. This final decision by the EC follows [...]
The first line of treatment for advanced prostate cancer is Androgen (male hormone) Deprivation Therapy or ADT. Once the PSA progresses (climbs) while still on ADT and with testosterone levels
The treatment of advanced prostate cancer, and in particular castrate resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), has changed greatly over the last 4 years. Treatment options have expanded and now offer multiple treatment possibilities that did not exist 4 years ago. With the addition of all these new options, so comes the addition of significant economic costs, [...]
Why does PSA continue to rise and prostate cancer disease continue to progress (new tumors develop and existing tumors continue to get bigger) when a man has an immune system treatment to go after their prostate cancer? This issue is probably the major marketing hurdle faced by Dendreonās Provenge and based on the current statistics [...]
It was announced today that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has adopted a positive opinion recommending that PROVENGEĀ® (autologous peripheral blood mononuclear cells activated with PAP-GM-CSF or Sipuleucel-T) be granted marketing authorization in the European Union (EU), for the treatment of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic metastatic (non-visceral) [...]
Sequencing of the various new advanced prostate cancer treatments remains a hot topic in our community. What treatment should come first and will the combination of various treatments be even more effective? These types of questions are constantly buzzing around us and they will continue to as long as we develop new treatments. The only [...]
Barvarian Nordic (BN) released some outstanding news a few days ago. According to BN they hope to complete the enrollment in their phase 3, double blind, randomized, placebo controlled, international clinical trial of their cancer vaccine, Prostvac VF. The trial known as PROSPECT is scheduled to be completed with in the next 12 months, unless [...]
More on Sipuleucel-T (Provenge) from the 2013 The last two abstracts that I want to speak about that were presented at the conference that pertained to Provenge speak to its efficacy. The first looks at changes in circulating tumor cells (CTC) and the second to the onset of the use of opioid painkillers. Abstract #40 [...]
Currently in Orlando Florida the 2013 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Genitourinary Cancers Symposium is in progress. There are a number of very interesting abstracts that pertain to those of us who have advanced prostate cancer. In the course of the next few days I will be reviewing a number of these that I [...]
I have said many times that one of the more important issues facing our use of Provenge is when to start it and how to sequence this treatment with the other newly approved agents that have recently become available for men with advanced prostate cancer. There is occasional conversation that Provenge is already antiquated due [...]
