A new approach to the treatment of prostate cancer could revolutionize how medical professionals treat

Nicholas James, lead author of the study and Professor of Clinical Oncology at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, UK said “Based on the magnitude of clinical benefit, we believe that the upfront care for patients newly diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer should change.

Usually, hormone therapy is used to treat most cases of prostate cancer, with treatment changing to a drug called abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) only when patients no longer respond to hormone therapy. In this new trial though, the two treatments were combined, giving some very impressive results.

The trial is part of a wider group known as STAMPEDE (Systemic Therapy in Advancing or Metastatic Prostate Cancer: Evaluation of Drug Efficacy) and was carried out in the UK and Switzerland.

The addition of abiratone has a dual effect: it prolonged life, as well as reducing relapses by 70 percent and lowering complications involving patients’ bones by 50 percent. Of these results, James said “These are the most powerful results I’ve seen from a prostate cancer trial. This is one of the biggest reductions in death I’ve seen in any clinical trial for adult cancers.”

Top image: Fit men. (Public Domain)

References:

http://www.ascopost.com/News/55699

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00268476?term=STAMPEDE&rank=1

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jun/03/prostate-cancer-therapy-study-abiraterone