CELL GENESYS REPORTS HIGHER SURVIVAL WITH GVAX

Cell Genesys has reported that it expects a higher percentage of advanced prostate cancer patients taking cancer vaccine GVAX to survive longer in its second mid-stage clinical trial than in the first.

The company estimates that the median survival in its current 22-patient Phase II trial will be no less than 29.1 months. The median survival is the point in a clinical trial when half the patients have died. The first Phase II trial, which followed 34 patients, had a median survival of 26.2 months.

The trials followed men with advanced prostate cancer that had spread to other parts of the body and had stopped responding to hormone therapy.