IMMUNOTHERAPY Club (Provenge/Prostvac)

Let me respond to a few questions that came from my earlier post;

Warmpusscat

After my dx and planning for the RRP, my UO was participating with Dendreon in a study and had been for a couple of years. Prior to my 2010 treatments, Provenge was being offered to men with advanced stage 4 PCa. As a study they found it extended the life of men by four months (obviously some got some longer benefit). Dendreon had opened a very small study of 40 men in the USA that was recently diagnosed and were committed to having a radical prostatectomy. My UO seriously encouraged me to participate since he had seen some good results in his prior patients with advanced PCa stage 4 patients. I wanted to have surgery at the earliest possible date after my biopsies but the UO said that since I was a G9, he stated that if anyone was perfect for the study it was me and he indicated that waiting another three weeks (so I could get the 3 Provenge treatments) wouldn't make that much of a difference. After meeting with him on a couple of occasions, I agreed to sign-up and participate in the study.

That is the only reason why I received Provenge so early in my PCa treatments.

LupronJim,

You mentioned that Todd1963 stated that the standard treatments for Provenge was 3 infusions and Todd was and is correct. As mentioned above, I was a participate in a limited study of men with PCa so I received the three infusions before my surgery. Three weeks later, I was on the table being operated on. I was notified after surgery that Dendreon was going to randomly select and offer to a few of the small group a fourth treatment. I was randomly selected and agreed to the fourth treatment that was about three a half months post surgery. I am not sure what Dendreon found out for those of us with a fourth treatment since they have stayed to the protocol of three infusions. I anxiously await the findings of my small study group. There has been significant findings since then such as it really takes six months for one's immune system to maximize the affect of Provenge.

Hopeneverdie

I agree with you that more men is the USA should be receiving Provenge that actual. Hopefully, with Europe opening up Provenge to all men we will see undisputed evidence of the benefit of Provenge so more UO and MO's will make sure men receive Provenge.

I know Provenge has not saved everyone's life that have received the product and I am sad to have lost some good friends that I made on HW that were Provenge alumni. But I hope with time, we will have more success stories, Europe has great success with Provenge and the American oncologists will get on the bandwagon and offer it to all men.

Do you have any idea when Dendreon will publish the results of my small study group? Thank you for you great contributions to HW with your advanced knowledge and expertise.

Hope,

I must be missing something...What did PCF do against Provenge?

Thanks Hope for your detailed response. I sincerely appreciate it.

Curious as to how many required a venous catheter for the Provenge procedure. Waiting on approval and after reading the literature this seems to be pretty nasty part of the program. Hoping I can avoid it.

Jim

Put me in the 'completed Provenge' column! last infusion was on 4-4-14!
Bob

1st pheresis on Monday 4/21.. I'm stoked.

Jim

Mark completed provenge October 2012
No impact on rising psa; no improvement 12/12 scans.
RIP 3/10/14

Kwidd,

Could you please send me an email when you get a chance. 

Thanks,

Jerry

Gleason 6 diagnosed 2010
Provenge treatment x 2 summer 2012
Avodart once daily since 2011
no other treatment

(values should be doubled while on Avodart)
4/7/2012 6.1
10/23/2012 4.7
5/7/2013 3.06
11/12/2013 2.86
7/28/2014 4.05

Big Drop after treatment. Going back up now?
(I paid for treatment myself, maybe I got an extra year or two)

Oncas said...
Curious as to how many required a venous catheter for the Provenge procedure. Waiting on approval and after reading the literature this seems to be pretty nasty part of the program. Hoping I can avoid it.

Jim

Still trying to get 2 PSA increases at least 14 days apart to qualify for Provenge.

If I do qualify I will need a port installed, as the sword they use for cell collection every other Friday and for infusions every other Monday is too big for the way they test my PSA from back of hand rather than near the elbow.

LupronJim

JerryL - I am now a card carrying member of Provenge Club. Actually a back pack carrying member as Dendreon/Provenge sent me a very useful back pack/ roller bag:}

I had my first cell collection this past Friday in Van Nuys CA and will have my first re-Infusion of treated blood on Monday in Marina del Rey CA at Scholz/Lam/Turner offices. So far pretty uneventful other than glad I heeded nurses advice and wore sweat pants since going 3-4 hours without peeing after loading up so much on water the prior 3 days proved undoable.

I won't study quite as hard the next time but got through the cell collection without the machine beeping at all about slow flow.

My second treatment normally would have been weekend after next but that conflicts with GFMPH Rochester where Karen and I are looking forward to meeting you in person and reuniting with so many friends and other new friends for life.

So Oct 3-6 for second Provenge and Oct 17-20 for final Provenge with 5 SBRT very high dose (* Gy each) fractions every other day from Oct 6 to Oct 15 to leverage the abscopal effect.

This complex plan is all thanks to the sage advice and counsel from Tall Allen who has been an outstanding mentor to me and so many others.

LupronJim

Q - have you had any treatment concurrent or subsequent to Provenge? My understanding is though it in theory helps with all future treatments, Provenge by itself is hard to measure effectiveness, especially not PSA.

I am looking to measure the combo [Provenge plus SBRT] and not the individual pieces separately.

LupronJim