Week 1 of Provenge Treatment Went Well

I am happy to inform you that week one was rather uneventful.

Short Version

I completed week one of the Provenge treatment this week. All went well with no side effects.

Detailed Version

I am on the Tuesday/Friday schedule. On Tuesdays, I drive to the Norfolk Red Cross for the "leukapheresis" step and then drive down to Duke on Fridays for the "infusion" phase. Leukapheresis is a lab procedure in which white blood cells are separated from a sample of blood.

The Tuesday "leukapheresis" step requires me to hook up to the collection device via a needle in each arm. During this phase they pull blood out of one arm, centrifuge it to extract the white blood cells they want to enhance, then return the remaining of red blood cells back to me via the other arm. It took almost 4 hours to the minute.

Luckily, I had been briefed very well, so, there were no surprises. I had purchased two movies to watch, "The Martian" and "Jack Ryan, Shadow Recruit." The time passed relatively quickly. But, by the 3 hour 30 mark, I was over it. Oh, well. You do what you have to do.

Note: I had the option of having a temporary port/catheter installed in my chest for my 3 weeks of treatment. This is usually for guys with poor veins. My doctors discouraged it because I have good veins and am still quite active. I go to the gym and do cardio/weights 5x per week and I sweat a lot. The port must remain in place for 5 weeks and must be cleaned frequently to prevent infections. I must say, though, the port method sure looked appealing. My leukapheresis room mate arrived 30 minutes later than me and he left 30 minutes earlier.

Once the cell collection was complete, they packed it up and shipped it to Dendreon in Atlanta to enhance it. In fact, the FEDEX guy was in the building and they immediately packed it up.

I felt no side effects from this step of the process other than feeling tired. I don't know if this was due to me sleeping restless the night before, waking earlier than usual, drinking only one cup of coffee, then having to sit still for 4 hours; or due to them pulling the white blood cells out.

Either way, I went home, ate lunch, then took a 2-hour nap. I felt good when I woke up. That was the extent of side effects I experience from the collection step.

INFUSION

This step went smoothly with no side effects.

This step requires only one needle and it is much smaller than the leukapheresis needles. First, they inserted the needle, then, they gave me two Tylenol and Benadryl capsules to ward off the typical side effects. We waited 30 minutes for the meds to kick in. (The most frequent side effects are flu-like symptoms, shivering uncontrollably. If this happens, they inject some heavy narcotics to stop it. Then, they resume the process.)

After the 30-minute wait, they began returning the "enhanced Provenge" back into me. That took one hour. Once complete, they kept the needle in and had me wait 30 minutes, just in case I had any reactions to the process.

I felt good afterwards. They say it affects people differently. Some feel euphoric, some are very tired; others feel nothing at all.

Afterwards, we went to a Durham diner for lunch then drove home to Virginia Beach.

That's it. We do it all over again in 2 weeks then again 2 weeks later.

I'll keep you posted.

Tony

I'm glad to hear it all went well for you Tony... no worse than the AUS I suppose.

The apheresis would scare the cr@p out of me. So would having my blood shipped several states away by FedEx. But you got to enjoy a couple of great movies (we have both on blu-ray). As for the port, my wife has had hers since December and CAN'T WAIT to get it taken out in October after her next (hopefully negative) scan. It pinches and disrupts her sleep when she turns over in bed. You probably made a wise choice, despite that additional hour each session.

Reading your sig it certainly sounds like you've been thru a lot. I hope this works well for you, and that all the successive treatments go as smoothly as the first. Good luck!

Just an 'academic' question:
Because your current PSA is so low (due to the Xtandi, I guess), how will you, or your doctors, evaluate whether the Provenge is 'working'?

Best of luck to you Tony, please keep us informed as to how all this works out, many are interested...