Sipuleucel-T approval (2010)
The FDA approved sipuleucel-T, the first therapeutic cancer vaccine, for advanced prostate cancer. It trained a patient's own immune cells to attack the tumor. The survival benefit was measured in months.
It proved the immune system could be turned against prostate cancer, but the effect was small and the treatment costly and complex.
The drug saw limited use and showed how stubbornly 'cold' prostate tumors resist immune attack.
It marks the start of a 15-year effort to make immunotherapy work in prostate cancer, the problem the new tool tries to solve.
