New Drug Promising for Hard-to-Treat Prostate Cancer

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- There is new hope for patients with prostate cancer that is hard to treat. A new drug may bring relief for men whose tumors continue to grow despite medical or surgical castration.

Two new studies from London reveal the drug called abiraterone reduced levels of prostate specific antigen (PSA) -- a marker for cancer activity. It also shrank tumors in patients whose hormone therapy had stopped working and in those previously treated with chemotherapy.

Male hormones such as testosterone are mainly produced in the testes, but they are also produced in other parts of the body. Because the hormones can stimulate prostate cancer cells to grow, the first treatment option for all men with prostate cancer that has spread is chemical suppressants or surgery to stop the production from the testes. But that does not stop the rest of the body from producing male hormones. Abiraterone inhibits an enzyme called CYP450c17, which is critical to the production of male hormones, not only in the testes but elsewhere in the body.

In both studies, men took 1,000 milligrams of abiraterone a day. The first study treated men who had not had chemotherapy before. Of the 34 men treated so far, 22 have had their PSA levels drop at least 50-percent after two months. Some also had their tumors shrink.

The second study looked at 28 men whose cancer was growing despite chemotherapy treatment. Ten of them had their PSA levels go down more than 50 percent and stay down at least three months without bad reactions to the drug.

The authors say the results are significant overall. A Phase III study of the drug is expected to get underway next year.

This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, which offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, click on: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.

SOURCE: ESMO Conference Lugano in Lugano, Switzerland, July 5-8, 2007
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