Seattle P-I reporter DAN RICHMAN in an article updated tonight writes:

Seattle-based Dendreon Corp. will delay releasing its much-anticipated Provenge drug to fight prostate cancer until at least next year and possibly until 2010, spokeswomen said Thursday.

Because of that delay, the company Thursday cut 15 percent of its 250-person work force, laying off the roughly 40 staffers who were preparing to begin marketing Provenge later this year, said one spokeswoman, Monique Greer, in an interview Thursday morning.

The Food and Drug Administration last week unexpectedly declined to approve Provenge, Dendreon’s only product, without more data supporting the drug’s effectiveness.

“We expect interim data in 2008, but it’s event-driven, by deaths or survival, so it could be 2010 until we have final-survival analysis,” Greer said in an interview Thursday morning. The drug will make it to the market “at the earliest in 2009, potentially,” she said.

She said the company plans to meet with the FDA in the near future and will base its next steps on the results of that meeting.

Full Story Seattled PI, Dendreon will Delay Provenge…

A site to advocate for “Provenge Now!” has been launched. Provenge is Dendreon’s immunotherapy for prostate cancer, which was approved 17-0 for safety and 13-4 for efficacy by an FDA Advisory Committee vote March 29th this year. On May 9, Dendreon announced that FDA has sent them a “Complete Response Letter,” commonly called an approvable letter, requesting more data. Dendreon CEO Mitchell Gold said “The FDA has requested additional clinical data in support of the efficacy claim.”
(full story…)

Tomatoes might be nutritious and tasty, say researchers based at the National Cancer Institute and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, but don’t count on them to prevent prostate cancer. Lycopene, an antioxidant predominately found in tomatoes, the researchers report in the May issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, does not effectively prevent prostate cancer.

In fact, the researchers noted an association between beta-carotene, an antioxidant related to lycopene, and an increased risk for aggressive prostate cancer. In a preliminary report last year from the same study researchers noted that antioxidant supplements have weak, mixed results for prostate cancer.

No Magic Tomato? Study Breaks Link between Lycopene and Prostate Cancer Prevention … Full story