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New Pill May Attack Untreatable Form of Prostate Cancer
July 25, 2008 08:51 AM
A clinical trial for a cancer pill shows promise in the fight against prostate cancer. But do cancer “wonder drugs” really work?
30-Second Summary
In a small study performed in London and published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, 21 men, whose prostate cancer was unresponsive to treatment, were given the drug abiraterone. Results from the study show the drug could help treat aggressive forms of prostate cancer in up to 80 percent of men.
The study tested men who, on average, had only about a year to live. Lead researcher Johann de Bono said that the drug shrank tumors, alleviated pain, and decreased PSAs—proteins that measure prostate cancer levels.
Red Orbit writer Lyndsay Moss calls the aggressive form of prostate cancer “almost always fatal,” but de Bono noted that some patients who have taken abiraterone for over two years are “still doing well.”
Abiraterone, according The Independent, acts by “switching off an oncogene”, a gene in cancer patients that codes other proteins, as well as shutting down testosterone production in all types of tissue, not just the testicles. Red Orbit reports that an international study of 1,200 men and a trial for women with breast cancer are both in progress.
Health writer Richard Smith is skeptical about the idea of a “wonder drug” for cancer, however. Smith explains that a phase 1 trial is “designed simply to find out if patients can tolerate the drug. So we might legitimately conclude that there is some evidence that the drug will act against the cancer, but we are a very long way from being able to conclude that it will save 10,000 lives a year.”
The study tested men who, on average, had only about a year to live. Lead researcher Johann de Bono said that the drug shrank tumors, alleviated pain, and decreased PSAs—proteins that measure prostate cancer levels.
Red Orbit writer Lyndsay Moss calls the aggressive form of prostate cancer “almost always fatal,” but de Bono noted that some patients who have taken abiraterone for over two years are “still doing well.”
Abiraterone, according The Independent, acts by “switching off an oncogene”, a gene in cancer patients that codes other proteins, as well as shutting down testosterone production in all types of tissue, not just the testicles. Red Orbit reports that an international study of 1,200 men and a trial for women with breast cancer are both in progress.
Health writer Richard Smith is skeptical about the idea of a “wonder drug” for cancer, however. Smith explains that a phase 1 trial is “designed simply to find out if patients can tolerate the drug. So we might legitimately conclude that there is some evidence that the drug will act against the cancer, but we are a very long way from being able to conclude that it will save 10,000 lives a year.”
Headline Links: A new weapon against prostate cancer
De Bono, the lead researcher of the abiraterone study, performed at The Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, said that “Some patients have been on it for up to two years and eight months and are still doing well.” Experts however, caution that these are early reports and a controlled trial has not yet demonstrated that the drug prolongs patients’ lives.
Source: The Independent
Red Orbit writer Lyndsay Moss writes “Abiraterone blocks hormone production in all types of tissue, making it useful in treating patients with so-called ‘castration-resistant’ prostate cancer.” Making the drug available to the public will take at least three years. Results similar to those of the phase 1 trial have been observed in a phase II trial of 250 men, though formal results have not yet been released.
Source: Red Orbit
Related Topic: Controversy over the release of Provenge
In December 2007, a prostate-cancer patient advocacy group sued the FDA for a delay it said was politically motivated on releasing the drug Provenge. The drug was shown to increase patient’s lifespan on average 4.5 months. According to the LA Times, Ted Girgus, who had suffered from the disease for twelve years, said the “fight now is for others,” including his adult sons.
Source: LA Times
Opinion & Analysis: Critics of new prostate cancer study; ‘wonder drug’ unlikely
Richard Smith, a Guardian Writer and former BBC “Breakfast Time” doctor said that at this phase, scientists “are most unlikely to detect side-effects that may be very severe but occur only in, say, one in 500 patients. Such side-effects are often discovered later—meaning that a drug that looks promising in a phase 1 study never reaches the market.”
Source: Guardian
According to Nobel Laureate Sir Tim Hunt, a wonder drug for cancer is highly improbable. In a story in the New Zealand Herald, Sir Hunt explained that “A well-designed drug compound would need to target only cancerous cells, while leaving normal cells unharmed. So you could stop the cancer cell growing by standing the right distance from an atom bomb, but then all your other cells also stop growing at the same time.”
Source: New Zealand Herald
Mike Scott of The “New” Prostate Cancer Infolink said of the new drug, “[W]e have all ‘been here before.’ Abbott Laboratories’ atrasentan (Xinlay™) was supposedly a billion dollar drug, but it has not made it to market. Immunotherapeutic ‘vaccine’ therapies have frequently been touted as revolutionary agents—but so far the best data available is only suggestive of a small survival benefit in some patients.”
Source: The New Prostate Cancer Infolink
Reference: Prostate cancer
According to the Mayo Clinic “A diagnosis of prostate cancer can be scary not only because it can be life-threatening, but also because treatments can cause side effects such as bladder control problems and erectile dysfunction (impotence). But diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer have gotten much better in recent years.”
Source: Mayo Clinic
FindingDulcinea’s Web Guide to Prostate Cancer highlights the Web’s best resources to learn about the symptoms, diagnosis, prevention and treatment of prostate cancer, and shows you where to find the latest research news.
Source: findingDulcinea
© 2009 Dulcinea Media, Inc.
