Vaccines followed by hormone treatment showed a better overall survival rate in castration-resistant prostate cancer patients than either hormone treatment alone or vaccines administered after the treatment.

Research published in Clinical Cancer Research will have implications for treatment decisions for prostate cancer patients, according to Philip M Arlen MD, director of the Clinical research Group for the Laboratory of Tumour Immunology and Biology, Centre for Cancer Research, at the National Cancer Institute.

Mr Arlen's trials involved giving 42 patients with castration-resistant prostrate cancer either a poxvirus-based prostate-specific antigen vaccine or hormone therapy with nilutamide.

At progression the patients continued their existing treatment and started to receive the other one as well.

The results showed an improvement in the rate of survival, with patients who started on the vaccine having a 100 per cent three-year survival probability compared to 75 per cent for those who started on nilutamide.

"By using hormone therapy in prostate cancer you can help enhance your T-cell response to where the cancer is in the prostate gland, and you are also more likely to achieve a better immune response," said Mr Arlen.

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