Prostate Cancer Immunotherapy

Dendreon Initiates Large-Scale Clinical Trial to Investigate PROVENGE® (sipuleucel-T) in Men with Early-Stage Prostate Cancer on Active Surveillance

Truckee, CA (UroToday.com) -- ProVent Trial Aims to Halt Disease Progression, Reduce Need for Aggressive Intervention — Dendreon Pharmaceuticals LLC, a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company and pioneer in the development of immunotherapy, announced it will conduct a large-scale, placebo-controlled clinical trial evaluating the effectiveness of PROVENGE® (sipuleucel-T) in reducing disease progression in men with prostate cancer on active surveillance (AS). PROVENGE was the first U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved immunotherapy made from a patient’s own immune cells and remains the only immunotherapy treatment for prostate cancer.

Role of Antigen Spread and Distinctive Characteristics of Immunotherapy in Cancer Treatment

Immunotherapy is an important breakthrough in cancer. US Food and Drug Administration-approved immunotherapies for cancer treatment (including, but not limited to, sipuleucel-T, ipilimumab, nivolumab, pembrolizumab, and atezolizumab) substantially improve overall survival across multiple malignancies. One mechanism of action of these treatments is to induce an immune response against antigen-bearing tumor cells; the resultant cell death releases secondary (nontargeted) tumor antigens.

Cancer Vaccines: A Brief Overview

Vaccine approaches for cancer differ from traditional vaccine approaches for infectious disease in tending to focus on clearing active disease rather than preventing disease. In this review, we provide a brief overview of different types of vaccines and adjuvants that have been investigated for the purpose of controlling cancer burdens in patients, some of which are approved for clinical use or in late-stage clinical trials, such as the personalized dendritic cell vaccine sipuleucel-T (Provenge) and the recombinant viral prostate cancer vaccine PSA-TRICOM (Prostvac-VF).

The evolving role of immunotherapy in prostate cancer

In recent clinical trials, immunotherapeutic agents have demonstrated promising results for the treatment of prostate cancer. This review discusses emerging immunotherapies for prostate cancer and their evolving role in sequencing and combination therapy.

Prediction of treatment efficacy for prostate cancer using a mathematical model

Prostate immune system plays a critical role in the regulation of prostate cancer development regarding androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) and/or immunotherapy (vaccination). In this study, we developed a mathematical model to explore the interactions between prostate tumor and immune microenvironment.

Therapeutic Vaccines for Prostate Cancer: Recent Advances and Future Directions

In recent years, therapeutic cancer vaccines have emerged as a viable and promising treatment for prostate cancer. Beyond sipuleucel-T, phase III trials are evaluating multiple vaccine platforms in men with this disease.