New Drug Receive FDA Approval

A new treatment for cancer, designed to use the body’s immune system to fight diseases as an alternative to taking treatments like chemotherapy has received approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

The drug, Provenge vaccine, trains the immune system to fight tumours and treat diseases rather than prevent them.

Experts who have been trying to develop this type of therapy for decades said Provenge is the first to receive such approval.

Dr. Phil Kantoff, an oncologist, who helped to run the studies on Provenge said, “the big news is that this is the first immunotherapy to win approval and I suspect within five to ten years, immunotherapies will  be a big part of cancer therapy in general”.

Experimental vaccines to treat other cancers, including the deadly skin disease, melanoma, and an often fatal childhood tumour called neuroblastoma are already in last-stage of development.

Presently, experts treat cancer by surgically removing tumours, attacking them with chemotherapy drugs or blasting them with radiation.  Provenge offers an important  fourth approach by directing the body’s natural defense mechanisms against the disease.

Specialists say the treatment is intended for prostate cancer that has spread elsewhere in the body and is not responding to hormone therapy.

They commended the approval, saying it is an important milestone and that it will serve as an addition to current medical practice, not a replacement.