Hello Warriors and Caretakers. Saw my Onc this morning and said Provenge is in the horizon for me. PSA is up to 1.6, up from 1.1 three mos ago. Although my latest CAT and Bone scan were stable, he suspects there are microscopic cells becoming resistant. This is why he wants to initiate Provenge or Xofigo. He is not going to start zytiga or xtandi because the PSA is still low. I know some of you have experienced Provenge, can you guys tell me the benefits of it? Wishing you all good health always.
Nick
dx March2017 PSA 415 age 52 Gleason 8
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Nicnatno
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I am not sure why your m o does not want to use either abi or a androgen blocker like enzalutamide. You might get some good results especially after the chemotherapy. Good luck
You could start with casodex then move to Provenge, I've been on both neither one gave me any problems. Your PSA is still low so you have time to do research.
It makes sense to me to do both Xofigo and Provenge at the same time. Xofigo kills off many cancer cells in the bone. The dead cancer cells have proteins (antigens) that then activate the Provenge. The amped up immune response can then look for small cancer cells elsewhere and kill them. (This is called "the abscopal effect.")
The benefit of both is that you can expect to live longer because of the treatment. Xofigo, if it works, should decrease PSA and bone alkaline phoshatase (after an initial increase), and should relieve any bone pain. Provenge may not change any biomarkers, but you will live longer if it is effective.
Thank you for this excellent perspective T_A, as usual. I have been pondering the following: I had Provenge in 2012 in a clinical trial. I am wondering if there is any information (or informed opinion) on whether to do a Provenge "booster" round after some years?
The problem is that after a while the immune response to the cancer stops. So a Provenge booster isn't likely to do much good - the cancer is ignored, regarded as the usual "self" proteins. That's where checkpoint inhibitors come in. They might keep the t-cells from ignoring the cancer, but so far, checkpoint inhibitors haven't worked well for prostate cancer.
Hi Nick I had Provenge back in June. The treatment itself isn't bad just time consuming you have to sit still for a few hours three times while they run your blood through a machine that extracts some white blood cells them it's re- infused back into you along with the Provenge in about two days later. The only side effects I got were severe chills and tired slept the whole day after infusions under blanket and again it was June. My Doctor said Provenge works best when PSA is relatively low mine is 0.1 going on 21 months. I have also been on Zytiga ,Prednisone and Xgeva since day one of my diognoses. My latest scans a few weeks ago show good improvement to bone Mets and no progression to vital organs Never give up never surrender. Leo
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