Dendreon Corporation in Seattle Washington prepared the therapy, called Provenge, made of synthetic PAP combined with dendritic cells. The modified dendritic cells were then infused back into the patient with the hope that they would help trigger the patient's immune system to kill prostate cancer cells throughout the body, said study author Eric Small, MD, associate professor of medicine and member of the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center's Urologic Oncology program. The results will be published in the December 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Dendritic cells are an integral part of the immune system.
They scavenge foreign material, such as bacteria and viruses, and then interact with another important component of the immune system, lymphocytes, bringing this foreign material to the lymphocytes' attention. The lymphocytes then jump into action and circulate through the body, destroying the foreign substance. The goal of the study was to see if these modified dendritic cells would be able to train the lymphocytes to recognize cells with PAP on their surface as a foreign substance and kill those cells. The men in the study received an infusion of dendritic cells once a month for three months. The median age of the participants was 69 years old, with a range from 48 to 83.