Cytogen retains the rights to manufacture and use PSMA for all other indications. PSMA is highly expressed in malignant prostate cancer cells, thus making it a putative target upon which to direct the body's immune system against the cancer. Ex vivo therapy involves utilizing certain cells from the patient's blood or from other donor sources, pulsing them with PSMA, and returning them to the patient so that the immune system will mount a response against the cancerous cells which contain PSMA on their surface. For example, beginning in 2001, together with our partner Progenics Pharmaceuticals, we plan to begin a series of in vivo immunotherapy clinical studies of a prostate cancer vaccine and of monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of prostate cancer. We believe that both the ex vivo and in vivo approaches will offer prostate cancer patients important, promising new therapies that are designed to marshal the patients' immune system against his cancer.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among American males, second only to skin cancer.
Cytogen Corporation is a biopharmaceutical company in Princeton, NJ whose mission is setting new standards in cancer care. Its two principal lines of business, proteomics and oncology, are built upon its expertise in antibodies and molecular recognition and are directed to development of novel products for the diagnosis, imaging, staging and treatment of cancer and a proteomics- driven drug discovery platform. The Company has established a pipeline of product candidates based on its proprietary antibody and prostate specific membrane antigen, or PSMA, technologies. The Company, with Progenics Pharmaceuticals, Inc., has formed a joint venture focusing on the development of in vivo cancer immunotherapies based on PSMA technology. The Company's wholly owned subsidiary, AxCell Biosciences Corporation, is developing a proprietary protein pathway database as a drug discovery and development tool for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.