Provenge is part of a paradigm shift, not as a cancer treatment but in the amount of money the healthcare system will have to pay for very little benefit.
I was at a prostate cancer panel session at the Lazard conference, the docs were saying that patients are not that interested in using Provenge because if they are going to be on a drug they want to see their PSA counts go down and their tumors shrink. Provenge does neither.
Then I asked the question, if abiraterone which decreases PSA and reduces tumors gets approved, will it get used ahead of Provenge. Sadly they said, probably not because doctors will get paid 5 to 10 thousand a patient to hang IV bags containing Provenge, they will not get paid anything to prescribe abiraterone.
If this doesn't exhibit a sick medical system, I do not know what does.
