New Drug Benefits Late-Stage Prostate Cancer Patients
16 February 2010 - The prostate cancer drug abiraterone has shown encouraging results in men who have exhausted standard treatment options, according to trial results published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Abiraterone was discovered at the ICR and has been licensed from BTG International Ltd. to Cougar Biotechnology Inc.
The 47 men enrolled in the Phase II study had late-stage castration-resistant prostate cancer, and almost all exhibited evidence of cancer spread to their bones. They had all already received hormone therapy and docetaxel, the only currently approved chemotherapy drug that has shown benefit among late-stage patients.
“Docetaxel is an important drug but it extends life for an average of just two to three months,” Chief Investigator Dr Johann de Bono says. “In this trial, abiraterone shrank or stabilised men’s cancers for an average of almost six months, which is a very impressive result.”
The trial led by The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust found that about three--quarters of men experienced a drop in PSA levels - the standard measure of prostate cancer activity - including a fall of at least 50 per cent for around half of the men on the trial. Three-quarters of men had a drop in the number of circulating tumour cells, another measurement linked to increased survival rates, and many patients noticed the symptoms of cancer had lessened. Side-effects were generally mild and easily treated.
The results led to the decision to take the drug forward into a Phase III trial in patients who have already received chemotherapy, which has finished recruiting.
