Provenge With or Without pTVG-HP DNA Booster Vaccine in Prostate Cancer

Inclusion Criteria

• Histologically confirmed diagnosis of prostate cancer (adenocarcinoma of the prostate)
• Metastatic disease as evidenced by the presence of soft tissue and/or bone metastases on imaging studies (computed tomography [CT] of abdomen/pelvis, bone scintigraphy)
• Castrate-resistant disease, defined as follows:
• All patients must have received standard of care androgen deprivation treatment before trial entry (surgical castration versus gonadotropin-releasing hormone [GnRH] analogue or antagonist treatment), and subjects receiving GnRH analogue or antagonist must continue this treatment throughout the time on this study
• Patients may have been treated previously with a nonsteroidal antiandrogen, with evidence of disease progression subsequently; subjects must be off use of anti-androgen for at least 4 weeks (for flutamide) or 6 weeks (for bicalutamide or nilutamide) prior to registration

** Subjects who demonstrate an anti-androgen withdrawal response, defined as a >= 25% decline in PSA within 4-6 week of stopping a nonsteroidal antiandrogen are not eligible until the PSA rises above the nadir observed after antiandrogen withdrawal

• Castration levels of testosterone ( = 2.0 ng/mL
• Measurable disease: >= 50% increase in the sum of the cross products of all measurable lesions or the development of new measurable lesions; the short axis of a target lymph node must be at least 15 mm by spiral CT to be considered a target lesion
• Non-measurable (bone) disease: the appearance of two or more new areas of uptake on bone scan consistent with metastatic disease compared to previous imaging during castration therapy; the increased uptake of pre-existing lesions on bone scan will not be taken to constitute progression, and ambiguous results must be confirmed by other imaging modalities (e.g. X-ray, CT or magnetic resonance imaging [MRI])
• Must have >= 3 serum PSA values obtained over at least a 12 week period of time prior to registration, including the day of screening, to calculate a PSA doubling time; Note: PSA's are not required to be obtained at the same laboratory; use all PSA values that have been done in last 6 months to calculate PSA doubling time
• Life expectancy of at least 6 months
• Patients must have an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0, 1, or 2
• White blood cell >= 2000/mm^3
• Absolute neutrophil count >= 1000/mm^3
• Hemoglobin (HgB) >= 9.0 mg/dL
• Platelets >= 100,000/mm^3
• Creatinine = = 3 years are eligible
• Patients with known brain metastases
• Any antibiotic therapy or evidence of infection within 1 week of registration
• Any other medical intervention or condition, which, in the opinion of the PI could compromise patient safety or adherence with the study requirements
• Patients cannot have concurrent enrollment on other phase I, II, or III investigational treatment studies