Drug Combats Previously Untreatable Prostate Cancers
22 July 2008 – New, groundbreaking research reveals a drug, discovered at The Institute of Cancer Research, could treat up to 80 per cent of patients with aggressive and previously drug resistant prostate cancer.
The results of the Phase 1 clinical trial, undertaken by The Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden Hospital and funded by Cougar Biotechnology, Inc.* found that the drug abiraterone could treat up to 10,000 British men diagnosed each year with the most aggressive and almost always fatal type of prostate cancer.
The study, involving 21 men, revealed significant tumour shrinkage and dramatic falls in PSA levels in the majority of advanced prostate cancer patients who received the drug.
Lead researcher Dr Johann de Bono said the drug abiraterone worked to block the generation of key hormones that drive the growth of prostate cancers. "Clinical benefits included evidence of PSA falls and tumour shrinkage which was observed in 70-80 per cent of patients," he said.
Abiraterone is owned by BTG and licensed to Los Angeles based Cougar Biotechnology, Inc. and is now undergoing further clinical trials. It is being used in a 1200-patient international study for the treatment of men with prostate cancer. Abiraterone is also being used to treat breast cancer in women through a Cancer Research UK funded trial.
