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The study of 512 men also found that 31.7% of the patients on Provenge were still alive at the three-year mark, compared with 23% of those on a placebo. Side effects from Provenge were minimal, although four men did develop non-fatal blood clots.

Although far from a cure, the drug represents the first significant progress in more than a decade against advanced prostate cancer, which kills some 30,000 men in the U.S. each year. For very sick patients, any additional survival time is considered a breakthrough by cancer specialists; the 4.1 months of added survival time represent a median, meaning that half the patients on the drug lived longer than four months and the other half lived less. As such, Provenge has won praise from doctors and patients alike. "Hundreds of thousands of men fighting prostate cancer will now have real hope that a safe and effective new option will be available to them in their fight for life," said Scott Riccio, executive director of the cancer patient advocacy group Accelerate Progress