Katie Couric's Notebook: Cancer Vaccine

Dendreon's Provenge vaccine harnesses the body's own immune cells to battle tumors, a new tool alongside surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.

After decades of research in this area, it's the first vaccine approved to treat cancer. Others, including a melanoma vaccine, may follow.

Yet these new treatments raise questions as well. Provenge only adds about four months to the lives of men with advanced prostate cancer. And it costs a whopping $93,000 a patient.

That's one set of numbers. But consider these: Over 11 million Americans have cancer and more than half a million will die of it this year alone - roughly one person every minute.

The success of Provenge opens the door to bigger and better discoveries... and that really is news worth celebrating.

That's a page from my notebook.

I'm Katie Couric, CBS News.