Advances in immunotherapy for prostate cancer
For those living with cancer, immunotherapy can greatly aid in the fight against the disease. Immunotherapy utilizes your body’s own immune system to help fight cancer, training it to locate and neutralize cancer cells. Immunotherapy is used for many types of cancer, but has been somewhat disappointing for prostate cancer.
Recently, there have been new advances in the area of immunotherapy that may make it a more common treatment in the coming years. Here are some of the latest advances:
1) Immune checkpoint inhibitors
A normal healthy cell in your body uses certain “switches” that protect it from being attacked by the person’s own immune system. These are called “checkpoint” proteins for immune cells. Sometimes cancer cells can take advantage of these checkpoints, using the immune system’s own safeguards against itself and keeping the immune system from fighting off the cancerous cells. For prostate and other cancers, checkpoint inhibitor drugs help block checkpoint proteins and help your immune system fight off cancerous cells.
For prostate cancer, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and dostarlimab (Jemperli) each target PD-1, a checkpoint protein found on T-cells. When these drugs block PD-1, they can help your body improve its own natural immune system against cancer growth. Unfortunately, the use of these drugs is limited to certain rare molecular characteristics associated with an individual’s cancer gene profile.
However, when these molecular changes are found, checkpoint inhibitors have been helpful in the person’s treatment plan. Checkpoint inhibitors show promise in clinical trials when combined with other types of treatment given to those with prostate cancer.
2) Therapeutic vaccines
In some cases, prostate cancer vaccines can produce tumor-specific responses that can fight against cancerous cells. One example is Sipuleucel-T (Provenge), a vaccine that was FDA-approved in 2010 for metastatic hormone-resistant prostate cancer in patients with no or few symptoms. Provenge is custom made for each patient by taking his white blood cells, treating them in the lab to stimulate them to fight prostate cancer, and reinfusing them into the patient. This treatment has been shown to prolong the lives of patients but is not a cure for the cancer.
Several other types of vaccines are in clinical trials, including DNA, RNA, viral vector, peptide, and bacterial vaccines. In most cases, therapeutic vaccine advances for prostate cancer help the immune system function more efficiently and strategically as it fights off prostate cancer in the body.
3) CAR T-cell therapy
Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy has been approved for use in some blood cancers, and is now being tested in solid tumors like prostate cancer. In CAR T-cell therapy, T-cells, which are essential cells within your immune system, are modified and trained to find and destroy prostate cancer cells.
CAR T-cell therapy for prostate cancer is currently only available through clinical trials. This has led to new findings and approaches that may propel CAR T-cell therapy into the realm of prostate cancer treatment.
In the fight against prostate cancer, several types of treatment can be considered. Immunotherapy, while not yet used as widely as traditional methods of cancer treatment, is a growing area of interest and promise in our weapons against prostate cancer. By working in combination with one’s own natural immune system, these methods have great potential to become incredible new advances for prostate cancer patients.
At Outcomes4Me, we are committed to helping you navigate your prostate cancer treatment options. Our app provides personalized information, resources, and support to help you stay informed and empowered. Download the Outcomes4Me app today to explore treatment options and access the latest research and insights on prostate cancer care.
