An FDA advisory panel has given the nod to Dendreon’s Provenge, an innovative new approach to treating cancer. The product is a therapeutic cancer vaccine that is designed to trigger the patient’s immune system into attacking the tumor.
As with all of the other therapeutic cancer vaccines, clinical trial results were mixed. Provenge was generally safe, however efficacy was a mixed bag. Provenge failed to meet endpoints for “time to progression” or tumor advancement. However, men in one trial lived about 5 months longer. So what is more important, survival or “time to progression”? Evidently the panel was moved by the survival data. I’m betting the FDA will give the drug the green light.
As with all of the other therapeutic cancer vaccines, clinical trial results were mixed. Provenge was generally safe, however efficacy was a mixed bag. Provenge failed to meet endpoints for “time to progression” or tumor advancement. However, men in one trial lived about 5 months longer. So what is more important, survival or “time to progression”? Evidently the panel was moved by the survival data. I’m betting the FDA will give the drug the green light.
