Preliminary Phase III Results for Provenge Vaccine in Prostate Cancer

SEATTLE—Dendreon Corporation has announced preliminary results from its analysis of its randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase III study of Provenge (APC 8015) for the treatment of hormone-resistant prostate cancer. The trial of the cancer vaccine (D9901) involved 127 men with late-stage, metastatic, hormone-resistant prostate cancer, 82 of whom received Provenge, three vaccinations over a 4-week period.

The vaccine utilizes a recombinant form of prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP), an antigen found in 95% of prostate cancers.

The results showed that men with a Gleason score of 7 or less significantly benefited from Provenge in terms of time to disease progression.