The US Food and Drug Administration today approved Provenge, a first-of-a kind vaccine for the treatment of prostate cancer. Seattle-based Dendreon’s therapeutic vaccine is tailor-made by taking a patient’s own immune cells and exposing them to a protein called prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) that is found in most prostate cancers. The treatment proved to extend lifespan by more than four months on average.

“It’s a turning point for the field,” Dendreon chief executive Mitchell Gold said at a news briefing today.

The biotech, which is in the process of ramping up capacity at its three manufacturing plants, said the drug will be made available to around 2000 patients at about 50 clinics over the next year, and will cost $93,000 for a standard three-shot complete course of treatment — only $23,000 per month of extra life, the company boasted.

All told, that’s not a bad deal when you compare the price to that of other cancer meds.