Trial results show prostate cancer drug extends life

The drug enzalutamide can significantly extend life and improve quality of life in men with advanced prostate cancer, according to a final analysis of a Phase III trial jointly led by the ICR and The Royal Marsden.

Enzalutamide, a new type of hormone treatment, was assessed in 1,199 patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer that had previously received chemotherapy, in a multinational, randomised placebo-controlled trial sponsored by pharmaceutical companies Medivation and Astellas.

Median survival with enzalutamide was 18.4 months, compared with 13.6 months for men receiving a placebo. Around 43 per cent of men taking enzalutamide as part of the AFFIRM trial reported an improved quality of life, compared with 18 per cent of men taking a placebo.

The study represents the fourth time in two years that results have been published showing a new prostate cancer drug can extend life.

Professor Johann de Bono, head of the Drug Development Unit at the ICR and The Royal Marsden, jointly led the Phase III trial of enzalutamide, as well as Phase III trials of two other drugs, cabazitaxel and abiraterone. Abiraterone was also discovered at The Institute of Cancer Research and was recently made available on the NHS. A further drug sipuleucel-T has also been shown to extend life in the two-year period.

The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.