In September 2018, Taiwan passed the amended “Regulations Governing the Application or Use of Specific Medical Techniques,” which approved dendritic cell vaccination (DCV) as an adjunct treatment for stage IV prostate cancer. This study evaluates the efficacy of DCV combined with conventional therapy compared to conventional therapy alone in stage IV prostate cancer.

We conducted a retrospective matched cohort study, comparing stage IV prostate cancer patients who received autologous DCV plus conventional therapy (DCV arm) with those treated with conventional therapy alone (control arm). Patients were matched based on age, ECOG, BMI, initial PSA (iPSA), Gleason score, and primary Gleason pattern. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS), and secondary endpoints included PSA progression-free survival (PSA-PFS) and radiological progression-free survival (rPFS).

A total of 22 patients were included in DCV arm and 25 in the control arm. Baseline characteristics were well-balanced, with no significant differences between the two groups. Patients in the DCV arm demonstrated significantly longer median OS compared to the control arm (76.3 months [65.43-NA] vs. 37.0 months [27.2-48.75], p = 0.016). Median PSA-PFS was also significantly longer in DCV arm (27.8months [14.96-46.96] vs. 17.5 months [8.75-35.36], p = 0.026). Median rPFS was also significantly longer in the DCV arm (not reached [61.7-NA] vs. 33.0 months [11.4-51.4], p = 0.004).

The addition of autologous DCV to conventional therapy improved overall survival, PSA-progression free survival and radiological progression-free survival in patients with metastatic prostate cancer.