One of the largest clinical trials for prostate cancer has given “powerful results”, say UK researchers.<\/p>\n
A drug for treating prostate cancer that has spread was found to save lives when offered earlier, a study found.<\/p>\n
The trial looked at abiraterone as an additional treatment in patients with prostate cancer who were about to start long-term hormone therapy.<\/p>\n
Abiraterone improved survival, according to results published in the New England Journal of Medicine.<\/p>\n
Prof Nicholas James, from the University of Birmingham, who led the research, said: “These are the most powerful results I’ve seen from a prostate cancer trial – it’s a once-in-a-career feeling.<\/p>\n
“This is one of the biggest reductions in death I’ve seen in any clinical trial for adult cancers.”<\/p>\n
‘More men could benefit’<\/strong><\/p>\n Abiraterone, also known as Zytiga, is a hormone therapy. Unlike chemotherapy which kills the cancerous cells, it stops more testosterone from reaching the prostate gland to stifle the tumour’s growth.<\/p>\n The trial involved almost 2,000 patients.<\/p>\n Half the men were treated with hormone therapy while the other half received hormone therapy and abiraterone.<\/p>\n Of the 1,917 men in the trial, there were 184 deaths in the combination group compared with 262 in those given hormone therapy alone.<\/p>\n Prof James added: “Abiraterone is already used to treat some men whose disease has spread but our results show many more could benefit.”<\/p>\n Each year around 46,500 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer in the UK, and around 11,000 men die from the disease.<\/p>\n The results of the trial were presented at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago and published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Saturday.<\/p>\n ‘Clear benefits’<\/strong><\/p>\n Sir Harpal Kumar, Cancer Research UK’s chief executive, said: “These results could transform the treatment of prostate cancer. Abiraterone can clearly help many more prostate cancer patients than was first thought.”<\/p>\n The Institute of Cancer Research also “strongly welcomed” the new findings. In March, patients with prostate cancer in England were told they could have early access to abiraterone.<\/p>\n The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) previously said the treatment was not cost-effective for the NHS until cancers were more advanced.<\/p>\n Prof Paul Workman, chief executive of the Institute of Cancer Research, said he was keen to now see abiraterone reassessed by NICE for use in patients “as early as possible”.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the largest clinical trials for prostate cancer has given “powerful results”, say UK researchers. A drug for treating prostate cancer that has spread was found to save lives when offered earlier, a study found. The trial looked at abiraterone as an additional treatment in patients with prostate cancer who were about to start […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":325818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[3,7867],"class_list":["post-325816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-ghana-news","tag-prostrate-cancer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=325816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=325816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=325816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=325816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nProf Johann de Bono said they showed that when used at the start of treatment, abiraterone had “clear benefits for patients”.<\/p>\n