Urologists at UCLA Urology are offering Provenge, a treatment option for advanced prostate cancer. UCLA Urologists were collaborators on clinical trials that helped lead to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of Provenge in 2010, and have been treating patients with Provenge at the Clark Urology Center since 2003.
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Provenge for Prostate Cancer
What is Provenge? Provenge is the first therapeutic cancer vaccine to receive approval from the U.S. FDA. For patients with advanced prostate cancer, Provenge (sipuleucel-T) is an immunotherapy treatment that utilizes the power of the patient’s own immune system to identify and target prostate cancer cells. Provenge is available for patients being treated at UCLA Urology as part of our standard of care regimen.
What is Immunotherapy?
Immunologic agents are used to stimulate a patient’s own immune system to respond against the cancer.
Urologists and researchers at UCLA Urology have been pioneers in using immunotherapy in treating urologic cancers since as early as 1976.
Who is a Candidate for Provenge?
Provenge is approved for men with advanced, metastatic (spreading) prostate cancer with few or no cancer-related symptoms and that is resistant to hormone therapy.
How Does Provenge Work?
Provenge is a safe and effective personalized vaccine therapy that uses the patient’s own immune system. Each treatment dose is manufactured specifically for each patient. The process of making Provenge involves collecting a patient's immune cells in a procedure called leukapheresis, and growing them in the laboratory in the presence of a protein that stimulates the immune cells to recognize prostate-cancer.
This process activates the patient's immune cells to help the immune system better fight the disease.
What to Expect on the Day of Treatment
Provenge immunotherapy treatment typically takes one month to be administered, and is given in three intravenous infusions every two weeks. Each dose of Provenge is given about three days after the patient’s cell collection procedure.
Appointments will take approximately two hours, with the infusion being done by I.V. in about an hour. Patients will be asked to stay in the doctor’s office for at least 30 minutes after the infusion.
Benefits of Provenge for Prostate Cancer
Provenge is a systematic therapeutic vaccine treatment that works throughout the entire body that idenifies and eliminates only cancerous cells.Studies have shown that in patients with metastatic prostate cancer, Provenge has allowed men to live longer with minimal side effects, and reducing the risk of death by 22.5%.
Risks of Provenge
Most side effects are mild to moderate and last only 1 to 2 days.
For More Information
To find out more about Provenge Immunotherapy in Los Angeles, CA and if you are a candidate, please call the UCLA Urology Appointment line at 310-794-7700.
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