Prostate cancer vaccine shows promise

An experimental vaccine may be used to help patients with symptomatic castration-resistant metastatic prostate cancer (mCRPC), renalandurologynews.com reported citing results from a phase 2 clinical trial.

The trial results showed Prostvac-VF immunotherapy, made by BN ImmunoTherapeutics, Inc., Mountain View, Calif., was associated with a 44 percent reduction in the death rate over a three-year period.

Prostvac is based on two weakened poxviruses that have been genetically engineered to produce irregular versions of PSA and other compounds to stimulate the immune system to attack prostate cancer cells.

During the three-year follow-up, 30 percent of patients who were given the vaccine were still alive compared with 17 percent in the control group.  The average survival for the vaccinated was 24.5 months compared to 16 months for the control.

One catch:  Those in the vaccine group were much younger than those in the control group, 72.6 years versus 76.8 years on average.  In the United States, the life expectancy is 76 years for white men and 70 for black men.

Philip Kantoff, MD, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Director of the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and colleagues conducted the vaccine trial. The results were scheduled to be published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Prostate cancer is diagnosed in about 190,000 men each year in the U.S. and the disease and its complications kill about 30,000 men annually in the country.

By David Liu