In a clinical trial, men with newly diagnosed, metastatic, hormone-sensitive prostate cancer who received chemotherapy straight away alongside hormone-blocking therapy lived more than a year longer than men who followed the standard treatment – which is to wait until the tumors have become resistant to hormone therapy before receiving chemotherapy. The scientists running the National Cancer Institute-funded phase 3 trial are from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Eastern Co-operative Oncology Group. They say the dramatic results are likely to change current standard practice, which has been routine since the 1950s. Principal trial investigator Dr. Christopher J. Sweeney, of Dana-Farber’s Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, presented the results at the 50th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) on June 1, 2014 in Chicago, IL.

Approach ‘warrants being new standard treatment’ “This is the first study to identify a strategy that prolongs survival in newly diagnosed, metastatic prostate cancer,” says Dr. Sweeney, who adds: “The benefit is substantial and warrants this being a new standard treatment for men who have high-extent disease and are fit for chemotherapy.” The increase in survival seen on the trial is significantly longer than the 2-6 months typically seen in successful studies of other metastatic adult solid tumors, says Dr. Bruce E. Johnson, chief clinical research officer at Dana-Farber. skin cancerscancerEstimates from the National Cancer Institute The current practice for men newly diagnosed with prostate cancer that has already spread to other parts of the body, and whose tumors feed on male hormones, is to first administer drugs that block the hormones – androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). However, in most cases, the tumors become resistant to ADT and the cancer progresses. It is only when this happens that the patients are started on chemotherapy.