Just finished my first course of Provenge. It took longer than I expected.
total time 1st part 4 hours
2nd part 6 hours
About 1/2 of this time was the administer wait time to start the treatment.
No side effects so far.
2 more treatments to go!
Anyone have any side effects on Provenge?
No side effects...makes you wonder if it is doing anything... I got a port after first infusion that made it quick and easy for the 2nd and 3rd.. Best of luck. Only time will tell with this treatment...
Hey Shooter1, thanks for getting back. Why did you get a port? does the port stay in place between the treatments? I got the IVs in the arm(s)
The IV for the take out worked ok, just slow. They had a hard time getting a vein for reinfusion and the port made it lots easier.. Yes, it stays in, flushed weekly. Tunneled twin catheter in chest to neck under your skin, into neck to jugular and down to heart... It sounds scarier than it really is...
The blood draw people checked my veins then recommended the dual tunnel catheter. surgeon installed it and it stayed in until Provenge cycles werecompleted.
Made the whole process of removing blood and then reinjecting go very smoothly
Little nuisance from the tube hanging on my chest but not a big deal
No idea if the Provenge helped. But hope it did something
How do you know Provenge is working if has no effect on PSA? I might be heading in that direction.
Yes the PSA does not change. But survival is increased by about 4 years. provenge.com/hcp/provenge-s...
Where did you hear four years ?
Schwah
Scroll down a bit provenge.com/hcp/provenge-s...
Sorry I still don’t see that four years. What’s the exact quote ?
Schwah
I think he meant 4 months. PROVENGE
(n=341) Control -(22.8, 27.7) 21.7
(n=171)
Overall Survival Median, months (95% CI) 25.8
We heard that it will help my husband for maybe a year.
In the video at 3:47 life expectancy is nearly four years on average. healthunlocked.com/redirect... The treatment adds 14 months to life on average.
Very interested in Provenge. Any links to its clinical trials would be great
Here is the science from the Provenge company. It was FDA approved about ten years ago. provenge.com/hcp/provenge-s...
Clinical trial leading to the approval of Provenge
How do you qualify to take it, just a Doctors order? How much does Insurance pay because I heard it cost $93,000 for 3 treatments!!! and what insurance do you have? I might be going that way also from what my Doctor implied
The insurance claim with Aetna was 60K per treatment. (2 years ago)
They perform a similar treatment in Mexico for $20,000. A German clinic. The Tijuana medical center is huge.
20K per treatment, right?
No, 3 treatments plus take home monthly shot for about $20,000 total.
How many days in Tijuana for each treatment? How many days between each treatment?
Sunday-Thursday first week. Sunday-Tuesdays 2nd and 3rd.Arrive Sunday, Treatments start Mondays.
Thanks. How many weeks between each treatment cycle?
Three weeks in a row. I delayed my third because of illness, COVID most likely
The claimed "dendritic cell treatments offered in Tijuana (such as ITC, Integrative BioHealth, Omsana and others) are not for real. They are not Provenge nor equivalent to Provenge. They do not harvest a large population of T-cells via leukapheresis (at a blood center) that requires 6 hours or more. They just draw a sample of venous blood (300ml) reported one. Another says they harvest cells from fat via a liposuction procedure!
Then they "mix" the separated WBCs with "cancer antigens" (any and all cancers) and re-infuse them. This is not the procedure nor product for Sipuleucel-T (Provenge). It is fake. It is quackery. They have been doing this for ever in many places, but especially Tijuana, preying on cancer patients for fake treatments. Once it was laetrile. Now it is this, and also fake stem-cell therapies. Caveat emptor.
I'm not fully understanding, but that's ok. My PSA has dropped from 0.55 to 0.51 to 0.38. No ADT. Maybe the radiotherapy in January had a delayed response? If it keeps dropping or even stays nearly the same, the treatment in Tijuana will be considered a win. By me, anyway.
yes, the PC cells very slowly die after RT, only when they go to divide. It can take two years to reach a PSA nadir (lowest point) to see how complete the eradication is. Hope it keeps dropping for you.
Thanks for that. I am hoping that is the case. However, my PSA started to rise right after radiation, then I began high dose vitamin C IVs and Ozone blood treatments. PSA stabilized, then I went to Veritas Clinic in Tijuana for dendritic call therapy. Have no idea where my PSA is headed, but hope and pray it's go"south."
It's a racket for sure.
One of my customers in Tijuana put me up in a hotel that had pedestrian skyways to the adjacent high rise chocked full of plastic surgery "clinics", cancer "clinics" etc.
It was an obvious money making set up.
The only thing missing was a hawker to shout "Cancer,cancer, get your cancer treatment here"!
I got the Provenge at Mt Sinai Hospital in NY City. My insurance Health First covered it, after a 3k yearly deductible. My oncologist Dr. Oh recommended the treatment. I understand Sloan Kettering NYC does not recommend the treatment. My psa is now 2, also I'm on Lupron and Xtandi.
btw I rode my bicycle to both treatments, so the treatment was well tolerated.
If it boosts your cancer killing cells why then would you be on a testosterone blocker and receptor blocker?
Good question. Because the all PC cells in a patient are not exactly the same genetically. So some PC cells might escape the Provenge but still die because of the ADT. That's what my MO tells me.
No pain for me.
I did not have any until My third infusion. I got flu like symptoms for two days. DrinkLots and lots of water the day before. It really speeds up the infusion. Are you doing any concurrent treatment. A number of treatments are thought to have a synergetic affect with Provenge.
Schwah
Got mine two years ago. My first infusions was three hours for first part about an hour for part two no side effects. 2nd infusion same time frame chills and tired, third one full blown Flu symptoms. I just went home and slept them off next day fine no port.
I didn’t have any side effects until after the 3rd treatment. I had SE’s similar to a Covid vaccine.
Ed
No side effects, thankfully. Did not use a port.
great news
I had one bought of chills.
I have a unique Provenge story. After Taxotere chemo my PSA was low (1.76) but still going up while on Lupron. I was given Provenge while PSA was still low. My PSA dropped slowly to 0.2! Last Provenge 4/2017. PSA started to rise again June 2020 & has risen slowly since to 9.3 in July 2022. I feel Provenge gave me an extension. It’s not supposed to lower PSA but did. I guess it was just enough to keep what little cancer I had at bay for several years. I think taking it while PSA is lower makes it more effective.
(Before Taxotere I had many lymph node tumors and PSA 21.)
Keep it up. It does good things. Glad you are getting it. Wish it was approved for HSPC.
Got Lupron + Provenge in 2012. When my MO stopped Lupron, PSA started to rise again in ~6 months. Also one met appeared on the rib.
Next step Provenge?
Provenge
