Afterward, six of them met with FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach - who himself has been treated for prostate cancer.
Gorkes thinks it's clear the drug works.
"The advisory committee saw that," Gorkes said. "All the literature says it. It's not just desperate patients saying it."
The FDA's delay, the activists believe, could add years more to Provenge's long development odyssey.
"You're talking a minimum of two more years," declared rally leader Thomas Farrington, founder of the Prostate Health Education Network, aimed at African American and other men at high risk of the disease. "Since prostate cancer kills 27,000 men a year, you're talking 54,000 deaths."
The FDA's delay also sent a shudder through the biotech start-ups that have more than a dozen cancer vaccines in the final phase of human testing. Seattle-based Dendreon, which saw its stock value soar with the advisory committee's recommendation and plummet with the FDA's postponement, had been expected to pave the way for the novel technology.
"We are disappointed that this decision will cause a delay in the availability of Provenge for patients who suffer from advanced prostate cancer," Mitchell H. Gold, president and chief executive officer of Dendreon, said in a statement after the FDA asked for more data.
Unlike conventional disease-preventing vaccines, the new ones work after cancer develops. Basically, the therapies unmask malignant cells, thus provoking a heightened immune attack. The immune system normally tolerates cancer cells because these renegades arise from the body's own tissue.
