The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), a private organization which develops what has become the standard of care guidelines for clinical practice in oncology, has modified their guidelines to included sipuleucel-T (Provenge) as a part of its prostate cancer management guidelines. The guidelines specify Provenge as a category 1 treatment which is appropriate as salvage treatment for patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer who have minimally symptomatic disease, an ECOG performance score of 0 or 1, and a life expectancy of at least 6 months.
Aa category 1 recommendation means that, “The recommendation is based on high level evidence (e.g., randomized controlled trials) and there is uniform NCCN consensus” about the recommendation. An ECOG performance score of 0 or 1 means that the man must be either fully active and able to carry on all pre-disease performance without restriction or is restricted only in physically strenuous activity, but is ambulatory and able to carry out work of a light or sedentary natu