Provenge (sipuleucel-T) by Dendreon

I am curious if any of my fellow PCa brothers have had the Provenge vaccine treatments? I had three treatments before my surgery and then was randomly selected for a fourth post surgery. Every time I had a treatment pre-surgery I saw my PSA level drop. As I have read the various blogs, I haven't seen anyone's signature that indicated that they have had the treatments. So my question is have any of you had the treatments, how long ago was your treatments, what was your Gleason Score, do you think it had any positive impact on searching for PCa and killing any cells that escaped out of the prostate, and your general thoughts and experience with it.

My first three treatments were in April and May, and the fourth was in July so it is very early to tell if it has done any good or not. The initial studies showed that it extended the life by four months of patients (but those were in Stage 4) and the study phase I was in was for recently diagnosed patients that were going to have a radical prostatectomy.

I am hoping with my Gleason 9 and having five of the five high risk factors that it will make a difference in my longevity but curious with other's that have received the drug/vaccine.

Dev:
You have a tough hand there, but the dealer plays this game real slow and many of us can be excused before we show our hole cards.
The pathology shows that you were absolutely right to tell the doctor to go and get it. And you were likely a fine candidate for the Provenge treatment as part of the trial. I assume that you know for certain that it was really the treated blood that was infused and not a placebo.
I am interested in your experience because Provenge has its real value when used earlier in the disease course, in my opinion. If your psa response is supported in the results from the trial then that could mean something. At 100,000$ for treatment it may mean less than Dendreon hopes, but there it is.
Was your psa checked as part of the trial? What were the figures at the psa draws?

Dev:
It appears that your study was this one: NCT00715104.
The intent was to determine the extent, if any, of immune response, comparing the biopsy tissue before Provenge and RP to the tissue removed by RP and after the pre-operative Provenge treatment. You were one of those selected at random to receive a booster after surgery.
This was a small trial with a max of 40 participants. No other relevant exclusion factors are on the trials page so it appears that your doctor sought all the options for you and you were near the center conducting the trial. There have been precious few men treated at your stage with sipuleucel-T. I would be astounded for you to come across one here. Or anywhere.
It is unknown what effect Provenge has at such an early stage. The survival advantage for those in the most advanced stage did not become apparent until after 6-8 months from treatment and widened from that point. There is some evidence that Provenge is synergistic with chemotherapy. Dan Petrylak led that study.
Because of the tiny number of patients in your trial and the earliest possible intervention stage of that trial, it will be most interesting to others how your disease responds throughout the years ahead. You have much to teach others from your experience. Unfortunately there are very few who have gone ahead of you. I salute you for your courage to undergo this treatment. May it be rewarded.

I just received my first infusion of Provenge three weeks ago, and go in this Friday for another blood draw for a Monday infusion. As I said in another, related post, HOW WILL I KNOW IF THE PROVENGE IS WORKING?

I had been on Eligard/Lupron for four years since my 2007 RRP. It was working until early this year (2011), when my PSA levels doubled every two months despite castration-levels of Testosterone. My oncologist added Casodex, and my PSA took a slight dive. I got MRI'd and bone-scanned with nothing noticed. I tried the unreliable "Prostascint" scan and it revealed a residual lesion in the prostate bed/bladder area. I got "Provenged", and within the week noticed a lessening of my urine stream. I attributed that to the Provenge-supercharged immune system rushing resources to the area, causing swelling and partially shutting off my system. It got so bad I went to the E.R. for a catheter--no go (after FOUR separate times trying to insert). I went to surgery and my urologist doped, scoped, and groped me and found a "flap" of skin covering my bladder outlet like the flap of a toilet tank. He snipped and biopsied--Yup--cancer--the lesion was expanding and intruding upon the bladder neck.

So I am hoping the Provenge can keep up with the expansion of the lesion!

Zane,

 I have been blessed with this journey just since January of this year. The first time I had the treatment, I had the side effects that they describe, flu like, aches, etc. for aonly a couple of days. The other two treatments, were no problem and I had no side effects from the treatments. Maybe a little headache, but that was all.

The fourth treatment was similar to the second and third treatments.

It is way to early to tell if it has has any real effect. I can say, that my PSA declined each time for the three treatments.That could be in part due to the Provenge, or due to my prostate swelling decling since my biopsy.

Everyone that I had found that have taken Provenge had advanced metastatic PC and it probably has extended their life but it is hard to tell.

I am sorry that you have PCa and will hope that the Provenge will make a difference in reversing the PSA advancement.

Let me know if you have any other questions. I have my email address posted so you could email me and I will give you my phone number if you would like to call and visit.

Best Wishes. 

Thanks Fairwind, I will most certainly keep everyone up to date. I only hope that it will be good news, and not the results of most studies, that have failed. I hope that Dendreon's research will prove to make a huge difference in all men suffering from this disease.

I go in on Tuesday of next week for my six month check up and PSA test. I am just like everyone else on this site starting to get anxious and scared, only because I know what the results should be showing with my prognosis.

Thank you for your kind words. I will certainly keep posting so others can keep track of what the results my be. I do intend to ask about the comparion of the biopsies to the prostate pathology to see if they could determine any differnce at the cellular level after the three treatments. If I find anything about that, I will share it with the group.

Best wished to you and you fight this hideous disease.