You've heard of vaccines to help boost your body's ability to protect against infections like the measles, flu, and COVID-19. There is also a vaccine to help prevent several types of cancers caused by HPV. But if you have prostate cancer, a vaccine called sipuleucel-T may be a treatment choice. This vaccine is used to treat people with metastatic prostate cancer. It is used in cases when prostate cancer may no longer respond to hormone therapy but there are few or no cancer symptoms.
You may feel curious or even a bit nervous about getting a vaccine to treat your prostate cancer. That's understandable. This article gives details on this type of therapy and how it can affect your body.
How the vaccine works
It's helpful to break down the process of this therapy into a few steps.
Step 1: Collecting immune cells
The vaccine is designed specifically for you. That way, it's ready to help fight your prostate cancer. To create the vaccine, your doctor will first take a sample of your immune cells (white blood cells).
They'll connect an I.V. (intravenous) line to a vein in your hand or arm. A machine will take a sample of your blood and preserve the immune cells. This process is called leukapheresis. The remaining parts of the blood that aren't needed go back in your body. The whole process takes a few hours.
Step 2: Creating a vaccine just for you
Your immune cells are then sent to a lab. There they are exposed to a protein found on prostate cancer cells (called prostatic acid phosphatase or PAP). At the same time, they are exposed to a chemical to boost the immune response to PAP. This helps the immune cells recognize and attack prostate cancer cells.
Step 3: Receiving your vaccine
The lab will send the vaccine to your doctor's office or hospital a few days later.
You'll get the vaccine as 3 infusion treatments, about 2 weeks apart. For each treatment, your doctor will connect an I.V. line to a vein in your hand or arm. The other end of the line will be connected to a bag with the treated immune cells. Your health care team will watch you for side effects.
Possible side effects
Talk to your doctorr about what side effects you may have and when to report them.
During or after the infusion, you may have:
- Extreme tiredness (fatigue)
- Fever
- Chills
- Headache
- Back or joint pain
- Nausea
- Itchy skin
- Skin rash
Many of these symptoms may go away a few days after treatment. In rare cases, you may have trouble breathing or high blood pressure.
After you get the vaccine
This vaccine does not cure prostate cancer. It won't lower PSA levels or shrink the cancer. But it may help someone with prostate cancer live longer.
If you have any side effects after you get the vaccine, write them down and let your health care team know. Have your doctors' contact information for evenings and weekends and holidays in case you need to reach them during off-hours. Your doctors will monitor you and update your treatment plan if needed.
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