Combining prostate cancer drugs could delay drug resistance, study finds
Combing two new prostate cancer drugs – abiraterone and MDV3100 - could increase the number of men who respond to treatment and the length of time they benefit, a new study shows.
Both hormone-blocking drugs can extend life for men with advanced prostate cancer, according to Phase III clinical trials led by Professor Johann de Bono from the ICR and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust.
A new pre-clinical study has now identified a reason why men ultimately develop resistance to abiraterone – a drug discovered at the ICR. Dr Gerhardt Attard and colleagues at the ICR and The Royal Marsden found that steroids and other drugs given in combination with abiraterone to control side-effects could contribute to resistance by activating mutations in the hormone-receptor gene.
Importantly, the team found that it was possible to block this activation by combining abiraterone with MDV3100. This is the first ever study to give a biological reason for combining these two new drugs. The scientists also found that at high doses, abiraterone could also block the androgen receptor like MDV3100 does.
