How eager are patients to try immunotherapy?

[Anonymous]

Patients love the idea of immunotherapy, especially the idea that their own bodies are fighting the disease. They are coming to clinic and requesting these therapies, including early-stage patients who could be cured by prostatectomy but still want to participate in immunotherapy trials. Many of these patients feel it is important to be a part of developing the best science. This is a motivated population, and they read about eligibility criteria online and often travel great distances to participate—and this is despite the side effects and toxicities that may be associated with some of these therapies. Immunotherapy is a new standard of care that people are drawn to. It's another pillar, with chemotherapy, radiation, and hormonal therapy. We all want it to be a part of the arsenal.

There is currently no sequencing paradigm, but there are several trials looking at sequencing. I’m involved in a trial with Larry Fong at the University of California, San Francisco, that combines sipuleucel-T with anti-CTLA-4. (ipilimumab)...
We’re also hoping that the combination of sipuleucel-T and anti-CTLA-4 in our trial will give us some hints about types of immune responses generated as a result of the combination and possibly association of these immune responses with clinical data....

There are also combination trials that propose to evaluate sipuleucel-T plus abiraterone and sipuleucel-T plus enzalutamide that will also look at the question of sequencing.

http://www.targetedonc.com/publications/special-reports/2013/gu-issue1/immunotherapy-in-crpc/3

 

[Anonymous]

Great article. Thanks for posting.

 

[Anonymous]

Patients are about as eager to try Provenge as much as HCPs are willing to prescribe. Our declining sales figures bear that out each declining quarter.

Time to sell this scrap heap to the lowest bidder ... If anyone is stupid enough to enter into an agreement with JJ the pirate

 

[Anonymous]

Patients love the idea of immunotherapy, especially the idea that their own bodies are fighting the disease. They are coming to clinic and requesting these therapies, including early-stage patients who could be cured by prostatectomy but still want to participate in immunotherapy trials. Many of these patients feel it is important to be a part of developing the best science. This is a motivated population, and they read about eligibility criteria online and often travel great distances to participate—and this is despite the side effects and toxicities that may be associated with some of these therapies. Immunotherapy is a new standard of care that people are drawn to. It's another pillar, with chemotherapy, radiation, and hormonal therapy. We all want it to be a part of the arsenal.

There is currently no sequencing paradigm, but there are several trials looking at sequencing. I’m involved in a trial with Larry Fong at the University of California, San Francisco, that combines sipuleucel-T with anti-CTLA-4. (ipilimumab)...
We’re also hoping that the combination of sipuleucel-T and anti-CTLA-4 in our trial will give us some hints about types of immune responses generated as a result of the combination and possibly association of these immune responses with clinical data....

There are also combination trials that propose to evaluate sipuleucel-T plus abiraterone and sipuleucel-T plus enzalutamide that will also look at the question of sequencing.

http://www.targetedonc.com/publications/special-reports/2013/gu-issue1/immunotherapy-in-crpc/3

Thought provoking article. Refreshing article after the hundreds of posts fabricated by someone that has never worked for Dendreon, attacked everything and everyone connected with the company, and is personally under investigation himself.