Dennis Phillips will commute more than two hours when he begins a new form of treatment at Providence St. Mary Medical Center for metastatic prostate cancer this month.
Phillips, 70, lives in Umatilla, Ore., retired from a 38-year career with Marlette Homes in Hermiston.
The long trips to Walla Walla will be a bit of a haul, but worth every mile if the "Provenge" treatment system can tack time onto a life shortened by advanced prostate cancer, Phillips said. "As long as I can keep feeling good like I do now."
Prostate cancer is the most common cause of death from cancer in men over age 75, and is rarely found in men younger than 40, according to the National Institute of Health.
The low-grade version of prostate cancer is most often heard about, touted as being a cancer men might die with, rather than from. Treatment of the slow-growing disease consists of doing little to nothing except monitoring through blood screening in many cases.
St. Mary is the only cancer center in Southeast Washington offering the Provenge option, and providers there consider it to be one of the major breakthroughs in prostate treatment in recent years. It was approved by the U.S. Drug and Food Administration for use in 2010.
It works differently than anything else has so far in treatment history of the disease, according to news reports of the medication. The company that manufactures Provenge mixes the chemicals specifically for each patient, designing the dose to attach to the patient's own white blood cells -- collected for the occasion -- that are in charge of fighting cancer and other intruders.
A body's white blood cells could perhaps do the work on their own if cancer cells weren't so good at camouflaging themselves "with a whole host of tricks," said Dr. James Cunningham, an oncologist and medical director of the cancer center. "They want to survive and they are very devious."
Provenge "teaches" the white cells to communicate with the tumor, he said. "So the antigen cells are sent to school. Like taking students and helping them learn about one particular danger."
The chemotherapy-and-white cell cocktail is then sent back from the lab and re-infused into the patient's blood supply. There is no discomfort associated with the procedure, Howard said, although an allergic reaction is possible. The option has no age cutoff.
With his grandchild playing in the background, Dennis Phillips agreed. Surgery failed to stop his cancer, and "radiation didn't seem to matter, either," he said. "The doctor said he can't cure it, but it can make me live a little longer. Even a little longer is worth it."
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