Kansas City Urology and Oncology is now an exclusive provider of PROVENGE in the Kansas City metro area. PROVENGE is the first approved immunotherapy for advanced prostate cancer.
What Is PROVENGE?
PROVENGE is a new type of cancer treatment known as cellular immunotherapy. It uses the power of the body’s own immune system to fight cancer. One of the jobs of the immune system is to detect abnormal cells, like cancer cells, and attack. The immune system has a memory and can recognize substances it has encountered before. PROVENGE takes cells from the patient, activates them, and returns them to the patient’s body thus boosting the immune system to target and attack cancer cells and keep them from spreading. PROVENGE is customized to each individual because it is made from his own immune cells.
How Does PROVENGE Work?
With PROVENGE, patient cells are collected through leukapheresis (a machine takes out the white blood cells and returns all the other blood cells and plasma back into the bloodstream). These cells are treated at a state-of-the-art facility, and then infused back into the patient through an IV a few days later. The newly treated cells recognize and attack specific cancer cells. This immunotherapy allows the immune system to fight the cancer immediately and have lasting effects helping men live longer. If you prefer, you can watch a video about it.
What Does PROVENGE Treatment Look Like?
The process begins with collecting your immune cells and sending them to a sota facility. There, they are activated and turned into PROVENGE to fight advanced prostate cancer. Approximately three days later, the cells are infused back into the patient. This process occurs in three cycles about two weeks apart. The process can be completed with six appointments throughout the course of four to six weeks. Each infusion takes about an hour with another 30 minutes of post-infusion monitoring. While some men have experienced serious side effects, generally, the side effects are minimal. They may include chills, fatigue, fever, back pain, nausea, joint ache, and headache.
Who Is a Candidate for PROVENGE?
If you recently learned that your prostate cancer has progressed to metastatic disease (spread from the prostate to other areas of the body), and your body is resistant to hormone therapy – a condition known as MCRPC or metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer – you may be a candidate for PROVENGE.