The followings are reported in The Star 1 May 2020 entitled “FDA approves immune-boosting therapy for prostate cancer” (page W50).
The treatment called Provenge is designed for use by men in the advanced stages of prostate cancer, whose illness has spread to other parts of the body and is resistant to standard hormone treatment.
It involves extracting a patient’s immune cells from his blood in a process known as leukapharesis.
To boost the patient’s response against cancer, the immune cells are exposed to a protein found in body of prostate cancers before being reintroduced intravenously to the patient’s body.
The procedure stimulates a patient’s own immune system to respond against the cancer.
The effectiveness of Provenge was studied in 512 patients with metastatic prostate cancer in a random, double-blind trial and showed an increase in overall survival of 4.1 months.
Prostate cancer is the second most common type of cancer among men in the United States, behind skin cander.
In 2009, there were 192,000 new cases of prostate cancer diagnosed in the United States, and about 27,000 men died from the disease.
Food for thought:
1. The ‘new’ therapy may be able to lengthen the life of cancer patient for some time.
2. The treatment is unlikely to be cheap and affordable to the general public.
3. Do not wait till you have cancer, and then try all ways to treat it.
4. Save your money and your life, prevent prostate cancer to occur.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment