Sipuleucel-T, as the vaccine in question is known, is made by Dendreon, an American firm.

ECONOMIST: Treating prostate cancer

Sipuleucel-T's main drawback is that each treatment has to be handcrafted to the individual receiving it, using dendritic cells from his own body.

ECONOMIST: Treating prostate cancer

Although the findings of the studies are mostly consistent in showing a similar magnitude hazard ratio, estimates of the effectiveness of sipuleucel-T are imprecise due to the relatively small total sample size of the clinical trials, and unmeasurable biases due to potential confounding effects of frozen salvage product and post-progression treatments.

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