New drug slows prostate cancer and extends lives

Results of an advanced clinical trial suggest that a new prostate cancer drug call abiraterone was able to slow the spread of prostate cancer and extended lives.

In a large phase III clinical trial of men with prostate cancer who had previously received other treatment, including chemotherapy, those given abiraterone combined with a low-dose steroid lived, on average, 14.8 months while those on steroids plus a placebo survived 10.9 months.

Dr Johan de Bono, from the Institute of Cancer Research based in London and Surrey who led the study said: “This is extremely exciting because men with this aggressive type of prostate cancer currently have very few treatment options and a poor prognosis.”

Worldwide, prostate cancer is the second most common cancer. If the disease spreads beyond the prostate, a small gland found close to the bladder, then it becomes far more difficult to treat. Patients with advanced prostate cancer – in which the cancer has spread to other organs – are given hormone therapies as a first line of treatment. These stop the body from making too much testosterone, which fuels prostate cancer.

Side effects linked to abiraterone included fluid retention and hypokalemia, a condition characterized by low levels of potassium in the blood.

The National Cancer Institute approximates that 217,730 men in the United States. will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year and approximately 32,000 will die of it.