Prostate Cancer Vaccine
In clinical trials, an experimental vaccine extended the lives of men with advanced prostate cancer, The New York Times reported Friday.
Seattle-based biotechnology company Dendreon Corp. announced the results Thursday, expressing hope that the drug -- Provenge -- could be approved in 2006. It is believed to be the first time a cancer vaccine has extendeded lives in a late-stage clinical trial, said analyst Mark Monane of Needham & Co.
Cancer vaccines, also called cancer immunotherapy, do not prevent disease like conventional vaccines but harness the immune system to fight the illness after it has developed. Companies have had limited success in trying to develop such treatments and none has yet reached the U.S. market.
But Dendreon hopes to be first with Provenge, and the results could help for an earlier approval and larger patient population.
Provenge may have a broader market reach than we previously anticipated, said Dendreon chief executive Mitchell H. Gold, adding that the company was talking to the Food and Drug Administration about the approval process.
Dendreon said there was a significant increase in the survival of those who took Provenge compared with those who took a placebo, and that substantially more users were alive after three years than placebo-users. The trial involved 127 men with late-stage cancer that was no longer controllable with hormone therapy. Jim Shaw
|
