Baltimore, MD — April 6, 2026 – Dr. Arthur Burnett is spotlighting encouraging early findings on a novel investigational immunotherapy in a recent Healthgrades feature, a leading online health platform that reaches more than 7.7 million users each month. The coverage offers hope for patients with advanced, treatment-resistant prostate cancer.
Healthgrades is a leading online healthcare resource that helps patients find and connect with doctors, hospitals, and trusted medical information. Healthgrades is also part of the larger RVO Health network, which collectively engages 100 million+ unique health and wellness seekers every month across its portfolio of trusted brands.
VIR-5500 (also called AMX-500) is an experimental immunotherapy being tested in early clinical trials for men whose prostate cancer no longer responds to standard treatments. It works by helping the immune system identify and attack cancer cells more precisely. Early results were shared at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Genitourinary Cancers Symposium in February 2026, though the data have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
VIR-5500 is engineered to remain inactive in the bloodstream and activate only within the tumor, helping T cells target cancer cells while minimizing damage to healthy tissue.
“These findings are an encouraging early signal,” said Dr. Burnett. “The experimental immunotherapy VIR-5500 is particularly notable for its mechanism, it redirects the patient’s own T cells to recognize and attack cancer cells that would otherwise evade detection.”
Early-phase results suggest the therapy is generally well tolerated, with mostly mild side effects. It also showed early signs of effectiveness, including lowering PSA levels, an important marker of prostate cancer, in patients receiving higher doses. Dr. Burnett emphasized that while these findings are promising, larger studies are needed to fully evaluate the therapy’s safety and long-term effectiveness.
This expert perspective was featured on Healthgrades, a leading online healthcare resource that provides patients and caregivers with trusted information on emerging treatments and connects them with top doctors and hospitals.
Arthur L. “Bud” Burnett II, MD, MBA, FACS, is a trailblazing and globally recognized urologist, educator, and researcher at Johns Hopkins University, where he has served for more than 40 years as the Patrick C. Walsh Professor of Urology and Director of the Male Consultation Clinic. Celebrated as the first Black professor of urology at Johns Hopkins and past president of the Sexual Medicine Society of North America, Dr. Burnett pioneered research that made Viagra possible, performed thousands of prostate and urologic surgeries, and authored more than 500 peer-reviewed publications and three books — The Manhood Rx, Johns Hopkins Patient’s Guide to Prostate Cancer, and Prostate Cancer Survivors Speak Their Minds. He is also founder of UroMissionsWorks, a nonprofit expanding urologic care worldwide, and a decorated U.S. Army veteran.