A reader says I showed lack of objectivity in my post yesterday on whether Obama will slash reimbursements for proton beam therapy for prostate cancer. It’s true, I don’t want to see prostate cancer patients lose the option of proton beam therapy.

Proton beam therapy for prostate cancer, a treatment that attracts more than an average numbers of engineers, scientists and pilots, is coming under intense scrutiny from reporters who expect it to be questioned by the Obama adminstration’s health-care reform team.

Today’s New York Times reports:  “A unit in Philadelphia operating with virtually no outside scrutiny botched 92 of 116 prostate cancer treatments over a span of more than six years.” Dr. Gary D. Kao, according to the report, ran a “rogue” cancer unit which covered up botched procedures in which radioactive “seeds” intended for the cancerous prostate landed in the bladder or near the rectum. Dr. Kao’s team rewrote treatment plans, according to the Times, to cover up his bad aim.

Drop Everything and fight cancers below the waist! is the slogan of Underwear Affair, a fundraising and awareness event initiated in Canada and now reaching Los Angeles and beyond.

People hit the streets of Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, Toronto and Los Angeles dressed in everything from briefs and boy-shorts to t-shirts and tracksuits to help fund life-saving research for cancers like prostate, colorectal, cervical, ovarian, and others that occur below the waist.

Runners and walkers of all ages and athletic abilities join in dressed for hilarious fun. After the races, the Underwear Affair party features dancing and an outrageous costume contest.

For video of last year’s event in Vancouver …

Want your city to run a great Prostate Cancer Awareness event?

Watch this 6 min. video of Baltimore’s Great Prostate Cancer Challenge, Sept 14, 2008. We have details of this year’s event.

“These results confirm the clinical value of Provenge to prolong survival in patients with advanced prostate cancer,” said Dr. Philip Kantoff, head of the prostate cancer program and chief of the division of solid tumor oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, and a principal investigator of the Provenge study, in a statement.

“We’ve been waiting a long time for a drug that is well tolerated and that gives men with advanced prostate cancer another option,” said Christopher Amling, chief of urology at Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Ore., who wasn’t involved with the study.

– Extended Median Survival by 4.1 Months and Increased 3-Year Survival by 38 Percent Compared to Placebo –
– First Active Cellular Immunotherapy for Cancer to Prolong Survival –
– Company to Host Webcast at 5:30 pm ET –

CHICAGO and SEATTLE, April 28, 2009 – Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN) today announced that its pivotal Phase 3 IMPACT study of PROVENGE® (sipuleucel-T) in men with advanced prostate cancer met its primary endpoint of significantly improving overall survival compared to placebo. The data were presented at the American Urological Association (AUA) Annual Meeting.

The intent-to-treat analysis demonstrated that:

* PROVENGE extended median survival by 4.1 months compared to placebo (25.8 months versus 21.7 months);
* PROVENGE improved 3-year survival by 38% compared to placebo (31.7% versus 23.0%);
* The IMPACT study achieved a p-value of 0.032, successfully exceeding the pre-specified level of statistical significance defined by the study’s design (p-value less than 0.043), and PROVENGE reduced the risk of death by 22.5% compared to placebo (HR=0.775); and
* PROVENGE exhibited a favorable safety profile consistent with prior trials.

African American men continue to have the highest rates of prostate cancer on the planet and the greatest risk of dying of the disease. An award-winning documentary entitled The Silent Killer: Prostate Cancer, now available on DVD, shows African American men sharing support and info about screening, life-saving choices, and quality of life.
Watch a 1 minute clip:

Hyam Levitsky

A four part interview with  Hy Levitsky M.D., professor of oncology and tumor immunology at Johns Hopkins Medical School and co-inventor GVAX anti-cancer vaccine, is posted on Dendreon Investor Village website.

Interview conducted by rufustoehee, a dentist and Dendreon investor, published 4/22/2009.

By way of introduction, Dr Levitsky’s bio is posted alphabetically downpage among those of other speakers at Cancer Immunology & Immunotherapy 2008: From Discovery to Development to Drug.

EXCERPTS FROM INTERVIEW

Conversation with Dr. Levitsky Part 1
“. . . . how this impacts on the field of tumor immunology, I feel it will very much depend on the nature of the data they present, assuming for the sake of discussion, that this is an unequivocal and unambiguous win, then I think it will have a very significant impact. Number one, I think that unless there are aspects to this that have not been made public, I think the FDA would in this instance need to move it forward in the approval process and I think that how it ultimately gets integrated into clinical practice will be a fascinating thing to watch.

“. . . . It is important to acknowledge that tumor response is a surrogate endpoint. It is a surrogate endpoint for perhaps 2 other endpoints that might be more meaningful. One is overall survival which is the gold standard and the other perhaps is the quality of life. No one can argue that those two things have sort of the paramount importance where as to an objective 50% or greater reduction in the mean diameter of all measurable tumor masses is an interesting yard stick, but it is only a yard stick.”

Writer JG Ballard died yesterday aged 78 of prostate cancer. “Despite being diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer in 2006,” Chris Watt reports in the UK Herald “he kept well enough to pen an autobiography, Miracles of Life, in 2008.” BBC –putting his obituary in the entertainment section –pointlessly bowdlerizes the nature of Ballard’s illness, claiming “His agent Margaret Hanbury said the author had been ill ‘for several years’ . . . .” Ballard made no secret of prostate cancer. Others have claimed that he began Miracles of Life because of it.