SPRINGFIELD, Ore. - Don Pierce is in the fight of his life.
The 78-year-old Junction City man has been dealing with prostate cancer for 16 years.
Chemo, radiation, surgery - he's done it all.
"I went through every emotion you can think of," Pierce said.
Last year, his doctors at the Oregon Urology Institute chose a new treatment approved by the FDA called Provenge.
The drug stimulates the patient's own immune system to fight off cancer.
Treatments like Provenge can't come soon enough: prostate cancer is the second deadliest cancer for men. An estimated 33,000 men will die from the disease this year.
In Pierce's case, he donated blood, his white blood cells were harvested, and they went through 3 days of mixing with Provenge. It was shipped back, and Pierce received the souped-up white cells by infusion.
"These white blood cells activate t-cells," said Dr. Bryan Mehlhaff from the Oregon Urology Institute, "and the t-cells then will go attack the patient's prostate cancer."
Pierce said his cancer is still there, but his picture of health is vastly improved.
"It's the wave of the future, in that it's teaching my body to fight my disease," he said.
New studies show the average life extension after Provenge treatment is 7 to 8 months, something Mehlhaff calls a
"I can't cure you, but we're slowly turning this into a more chronic disease," the doctor said.
That gives Pierce a new goal: Not just surviving but thriving en route to his 80th birthday.
"I'm interested in the quality of my life," he said, "not just the quantity."
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