Vaccine treatment for prostate cancer

Sipuleucel-T (Provenge^®) is a cancer vaccine used to treat advanced prostate cancer. Unlike most vaccines, this vaccine is aimed at treating prostate cancer, not preventing it.

This vaccine is made specially for each person who gets it. It is not mass produced. To make it, white blood cells are removed from the patient's blood and sent to a lab, where they are exposed to a protein from prostate cancer cells called prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP). These cells are then sent back to the doctor’s office and given back to the patient into a vein (IV). This process is done 2 more times, 2 weeks apart, so that the patient gets 3 doses of cells. In the body, the cells cause other immune system cells to attack the patient's prostate cancer.

Side effects from the vaccine tend to be milder than those from hormone therapy or chemotherapy. Short-term side effects can include fever, chills, fatigue, back and joint pain, nausea, and headache. A few men had more severe symptoms, including problems breathing and high blood pressure, which improved after treatment.

Studies to see if this vaccine can help men with less advanced prostate cancer are going on.