It is another choice and time will tell if it is even better on regular (non-refractive patients). The abstract mentions 4+ months survival in some patients, but that is based on median statistics and on refractive HRPCa patients that were super high risk of dying soon (in effect). As Tony mentions some did well for years using this, seems mighty profittable though and I dislike companies cashin on patients to excess and especially when the cashin seems to be the first priority and patient 2nd or 3rd. Cannot say on this but noticed it is pricey.
Pacct Newsletter is just out and has article by Mark Moyad and a few pages of discussion on Provenge, for those interested in reading contact:
www.paactusa.org and get a copy of their newsletters which is always with new information. Moyad looks at all drugs, diets, foods, herbs and objectively looks at them for any value and seems to be pretty honest guy, even has some harsh words for FDA (so that smells less biased).
Provenge gig in short story: Step #1 you go get your immune cells (white blood cells) withdrawn from your vein in your arm...new phrase for this is= Leukapheresis (Greek origin), it takes 3 hours in office (hydrated patient and no caffine) Step #2- Your sample is package in insulated container and sent to immune boosting facility in New Jersey (8.8 oz. sample you gave or 250ml). Step #3 (2-3 days later sent back) and you can get re-infused at your docs office, about
a 1 hour gig. (I don't have the specifics of how they re-engineer your cells) Someone mentioned $93K for the money aspect, seems plenty profittable no matter what the process is for the cells, and of course they have a patent. Happy for patient with more choices and anything that shows it helps, this so far is no guarantee for cure although the technology idea could lead to such, someday. But why cure cancers and put all these people out of business and miss all those profits...sorry...I am cynical and with many good reasons. Basically it is good news to see progress in anything for PCa, time will show what this one is worth. Hopefully no bad engineering ever occurs and causes weird scenarios and issues. This is rather new territory.
*disclaimer (LOL)-this is the authors drunken opinion based upon zero and living on planet Zroid, no guarantees of authenticity or study habits or medical knowledge, void in parts of Iowa and Hong Kong, author claims he is over the age of 18...Hey lighten up we can have some humor!!!