How effective, generally, is provenge?

[cesces]

How effective, generally, is provenge?

I don't hear much about these days?

[Tall_Allen]

It improves overall survival in men with mCRPC by 4.1 months - similar to other meds used in that setting like chemo, Xtandi, Zytiga, Xofigo, or Lu177PSMA617

[Javelin18]

What’s telling for me, is that it was developed at UCSF, snd tested at UCLA, but my UCLA oncologist isn’t a big fan of it.

As Nalakrats says, the next leap will be in new ways of training T cells. Provenge trains T cells with a single antigen that provides some training. However, it also multiplies T regulatory cells that stop tumor infiltrating lymphocytes from attacking the cancer.

Here’s a quick summary of method of action and efficacy, a much longer paper on it and an overview of where future therapies might come from.

sciencedirect.com/topics/ne...

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

[Schwah]

So before I did Provenge, I delved into it’s pretty deep. I talk to my MO and the doctor Ucla who administers Provenge. One of the most interesting things I found was that if you dig deeper into the clinical trial data, it turns out that the sub groups of patients at various starting levels of PSA showed interesting results. The lower the starting PSA , the larger the difference was in survival times. And the lowest group (under 5 PSA) had an increased survival time of over 14 months. This clearly implied the earlier the better for Provenge. I also learned that the killer t-cells were substantially increased when Provenge was taken right before ADT started or right after SBRT to individual mets. The thinking being that the dying cdd add beer cells from other treatment had a synergetic affect of somehow further boosting the killer t-cells as perhaps they began feasting on dead cancer cells. Anyway that’s how I understood it. For this reason after my “vacation” from ADT, while still hormone sensitive, I did the Provenge out of pocket right after my SBRT to metastasis and followed up quickly by a restart of the ADT.

Schwah

[cesanon in reply to Schwah]

Very interesting

[Shooter1]

Schwah, Great. My PSA was doubling every 12 days. Na-F18 scan showed new mets. Zapped then and PSA started back down... around 1.4 when I had Provenge... Been dropping every month since then. Now. 0.26 and dropping.. Something has sure made a difference!! Life Is Good with dropping PSA.

[Brysonal in reply to Shooter1]

Very interesting. What side effects do you get with Provenge please?

[Shooter1 in reply to Brysonal]

Pain from double tunneled catheter and chills during reinfusion. General tiredness for the rest of the day. Slightly loose bowels, but that may have been from the RT just before Provenge.

[cesces in reply to Shooter1]

”double tunneled catheter"

What the heck is that.

They put that into your veins???

How big is it?

[Shooter1 in reply to cesces]

Yep. From chest up under skin , into neck, into Jugular vein, down to heart. Makes the leukopheresis portion of the treatment go much quicker and easier. Then also, the reinfusion goes quick and easy without any more needle pokes looking for a good vein. Dr's assured me it was quick and easy. Well , it was for them. About the time the pain is gone from the insert, they jerk it out and sew up the holes.. Two tubes of lightly different lengths in one sheath.

[cesces in reply to Shooter1]

"Well , it was for them."

Lolol

[Schwah in reply to cesces]

Mine was more conventional. Thru my arms. They told me to drink tons of water for the 3 previous days which I didn’t end it went very smooth and painless. Took about 3 hours.

Schwah

[Fightinghard in reply to Schwah]

Schwah. How did they evaluate/decide if you needed the double tunnel or if you could just take reg catheter in your arm

[Schwah]

I think they liked my veins.

[SuppWife]

Bringing this thread back to see if anyone has any new or expanded comments on Provenge.

[cesces in reply to SuppWife]

Probably more effective if you take this thread. Summarize it. Then post your summary.

Then ask people if they have any comments to add.