I received an email last month that I was literally on the verge of deleting, but I am quite relieved that I didn’t. I have been invited to attend a “Patient Advocate Summit” for Dendreon Corporation. If all the red tape with the FDA is cleared, this Spring they are launching a new treatment called “Provenge’. I have written about it here on numerous occasions, as far back as October 2006.

Provenge has always been on our ‘what’s next’ treatment list. A quick description is this: blood is extracted from the patient and sent to Dendreon where is it infused with an immunotherapy. It takes about three days to send back and forth. Once the patient’s blood is returned, the compound is reintroduced to the patient. Although there has been a lot of controversy with the FDA and the clinical trials over the years, the most recent data shows that Provenge may prolong life for six months on average. Our hope is that I would be on the high end of the survival range. Given my health is otherwise good and I am relatively young, our intention is that my immune system would kick in and really attack the prostate cancer cells.

The site we are visiting will be one of the first three at which Dendreon is expanding the processing, once they receive final FDA approval.

I feel rather honored to have been asked to participate and am looking forward to the meeting tomorrow. I will be learning more about the clinical trials and new potential treatments as well, and will of course share my knowledge with all of you!

I also am looking forward to meeting a number of the ‘virtual’ friends I have come to know over the past five years!