Prostate Cancer and immunotherapy
In 2022, almost 270,000 American men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, and about
35,000 prostate cancer patients will succumb to the disease. Metastasized prostate cancer
leaves only a 31% chance of a 5-year survival, and to date, prostate cancer is the 2 nd leading
cause of cancer-related death in men (1). This disease continues to beg for newer and better
treatment options.
A number of therapies over the years have
attempted to target âneoantigens (a.k.a.
unique markers)â expressed on prostate
tissue when it becomes cancerous. And
while it may make sense to target these
markers, a couple of a major obstacles exist:
ï· We, the doctors and scientists, have
to know what those unique markers
are so as to target them, and we
donât know many of them
ï· Most of these therapies target a
single antigen, which can easily be
eliminated by the cancer to avoid
immune targeting
To overcome these obvious issues, therapies would ideally utilize machinery that is capable of
targeting numerous (if not all) unique antigens expressed on prostate cancer tissue.
Dendritic Cells (DC) are the most efficient antigen-presenting cell (APC) in the body, supremely
capable of orchestrating an immune response against an identified threat (for example,
cancer). This requires 3 distinct DC-led features including:
ï· Learning of the threat and educating the rest
of the immune system to the target
ï· Activating the right kind of immune response
needed to destroy such a target
ï· Empowering the educated and empowered
immune response to overcome obstacles that
the cancer may attempt to utilize to escape
destruction.
Awesomely, the Dendritic Cell is capable of absorbing
and transmitting knowledge of ALL unique cancer
markers expressed on the diseased prostate to the
killer T cells, allowing them to have full understanding of the threat. Almost as if understanding
how important Dendritic Cells are to fighting off cancer, prostate cancer imparticular has shown
Provenge.com
a unique ability in patients to restrict Dendritic Cell infiltration in the area (2, 5), as well as
inhibit activation of Dendritic Cells that manage to sample the tissue (3, 4, 6). Given the extent
which prostate cancer goes to deter and inactivate Dendritic Cells, it makes sense that the
therapeutic use of Dendritic Cells to overcome prostate cancer would seem enticing.
Not surprisingly, a number of clinical efforts focused on the use of DC to treat cancer have been
attempted. In 3 different trials, the administration of DCs pulsed with 3 distinct prostate
peptides was well tolerated and resulted in the induction of immunological and clinical
responses in patients (7, 8, 9). Though much was left to be desired, safety along with immune
inductions (to some degree) were demonstrated. A later trial utilizing DCs and 2 different
peptides at the same time (PSA and PSCA) showed more significant survival advantages
compared to previous attempts (10). After that, a DC prostate cancer trial was conducted in
which 3 different PSA peptides were used at the same time, which (aside from being safe)
showed delayed tumor progression in 33% of the men, and a stable or reduced disease in 50%
(11). Though it is unnecessary to go through all iterations of studies over the years, it has
become evident that Dendritic Cells plus a more expansive cancer antigenic library can lead to
positive results in the case of prostate cancer situations.
Ultimately, these results helped to inform the FDA decision to officially approve a Dendritic Cell
treatment for prostate cancer (called Provenge / Sipuleucel-T) in 2010 (12). However, the
technology behind how the Dendritic Cell was being used in this treatment was still in its
infancy and far inferior to where we stand today. Within
their own review of the trial results:
âThe median time to disease progression was not
statistically significant at 11.7 weeks in the
vaccine group compared with 10.0 weeks in the
placebo group. However, a statistically significant
increase in median overall survival was observed
(25.9 months in the vaccine group; 21,4 months
in the placebo group).
For as amazing as the science and many of the results
have been up to this point, this data leaves much to be
desired (13). Something was missing.
Bouncing off the âsuccessâ of Provenge, many cancer-treatment groups claim to offer a similar
therapy to treat various cancers today. They like to highlight how the ârevolutionaryâ Provenge
treatment is FDA approved and therefore phenomenal, and they basically offer the same thing.
The thing is, they do basically offer the same thing because the how they use their Dendritic
Cells isnât much different. Understanding that the how being used is suboptimal (to say the
least), they may try and add some ârazzle-dazzleâ by artificially stimulating with bacterial or viral
toxins, but these donât promote an anti-cancer response (and why would they?).
If the results shown with Provenge are your goal in an immunotherapy treatment for prostate
cancer, then you have no shortage of options. If you desire better, and if the how is important
to you, then Immunocine Dendritic Cells are now available to you. Exclusive and advanced, you
owe it to yourself to âŠâŠhttps://immunocine.com/
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