Ralph A. Highshaw, M.D.

Provenge is now approved by the FDA for use in patients with metastatic, hormone refractory prostate cancer. These are patients who do not respond to androgen deprivation therapy. Androgen deprivation therapy involves lowering testosterone levels in the body to below castration levels. This is done because prostate cancer cells feed by testosterone. In a clinical trial of 512 patients across multiple institutions, Provenge was shown to improve the overall survival of prostate cancer patients by 4.1 months.