Men with advanced prostate cancer who were given an investigational cancer vaccine survived an average of 4 1/2 months longer than men who received a placebo, researchers found.

Dendreon Corp's sipuleucel-T vaccine delayed disease progression and prolonged survival in men with asymptomatic metastatic hormone refractory prostate cancer, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a statement. Dendreon funded the study at 19 centers in the United States.

The vaccine, known by the brand name Provenge, is designed to stimulate immunity to prostatic acid phosphatase, an antigen found in some 95 percent of prostate cancers, the researchers said.

Median survival was 25.9 months longer among those given the vaccine, compared to 21.4 months for placebo-treated men, the researchers said. The study appears in the July issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Source: http://www.msn.com/

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