This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Vaccine followed by HT improved survival for prostate cancer
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Treating patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer with a poxvirus-based PSA vaccine followed by hormone therapy with nilutamide improved overall survival, according to recent data.
Researchers from the Clinical Research Group for the Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology at NCI randomly assigned 42 patients to receive either HT or the vaccine. At progression, patients were assigned to both therapies.
The three-year survival probability for all patients was 71%, with a median overall survival of 4.4 years. Patients assigned to the vaccine had a three-year survival probability of 81%, with an overall survival of 5.1 years. Patients assigned to nilutamide (Nilandron, Sanofi-Aventis) had a three-year survival probability of 62% and an overall survival of 3.4 years, according to the researchers.
Eight patients originally assigned to nilutamide switched to receive HT plus vaccine. Those patients had a three-year survival probability increase to 75% and an overall survival improvement of 3.7 years.
The 12 patients initially assigned to the vaccine who switched to vaccine plus HT had a three-year survival probability of 100%, with a median overall survival of 6.2 years. – by Jason Harris
Clin Cancer Res. 2008;14:4526-4531.