Have a read of this article explaining the benefits of provenge....http://seekingalpha.com/article/290286-dendreon-the-challenge-of-misinformation.
Treating cancer at a cellular level is a complex science and unfortunately for some their immune response from treatment will be insufficient to overcome the tumour growth and they will die.
It's the harsh reality of what we are investing in, product failure is death.
Conversely as the clinical studies have shown a considerable percentage of patients have an extremely good response from their immune system and their cancer remains in remission reducing risk of death by 22.5% and extending life by more then three years in 38% of patients.
Herein lies our financial reward from an extremely ethical investment.
These are also the figures that have medicare in the USA approving a "Q code" for rapid computer based reimbursement for urologists.
Given the cost of medical treatment generally in the USA $93K isn't that steep trust me!
So in contrast cvac is cheaper and could well possibly be more effective in fighting ovarian cancer ( and a few others of it's ilk)and hence is likely to be included in government health rebate schemes.
In fact you'll probably find that perhaps open heart surgery and a few days in intensive care and rehabilitation is considerably more expensive than a course of cvac!!!
Anyhoo enough rambling from me here's an interesting video on where the science was at a year ago http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlsGgqGRR_M
I did a quick google on the results for the monoclonal antibody treatment abagavomab which tries to stimulate an antibody response to CA125 and it has been unsuccessful, which moves cvac's dendritic cell therapy closer to the front line in the war against cancer!
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