Good news in Prostrate Cancer Research: "Spectacularly Effective" drug tested

The Los Angeles Times is reporting of an experimental drug that in limited tests is doubling the survival rate of patients with the "aggressive" form of prostate cancer. The Times cited the British study that was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology:

"There is a general sense in the prostate cancer community that this agent [called abiraterone] is extremely promising and is very likely to have an important role in the management of prostate cancer patients," said Dr. Howard M. Sandler, a radiation oncologist at the University of Michigan who is a spokesman for the American Society of Clinical Oncology."It's pretty safe to say that we are going to have a lot more to offer patients when this drug gets approved," added Dr. Robert Reiter, a urologist at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center who was not involved in the research.

"The drug is spectacularly effective," De Bono [of the Institute of Cancer Research in London] said. "The tumors shrink, the pain goes away. Some patients . . . have been on it for up to two years and eight months and are still doing well."

The importance of finding a drug that can deal with this aggressive form of prostate cannot be understated. The Times noted that "Historically, he added, most such patients die within six months."

Source: Los Angeles Times