Cancer drug dramatically shrinks prostate tumors

[n2doc]

he survival rate more than doubles among most of the men with aggressive cancers. A second, wider test shows similar results. 'Spectacularly effective,' a researcher says.
By Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 23, 2008
An experimental cancer drug shrank prostate tumors dramatically and more than doubled survival in 70% to 80% of patients with aggressive cancers, British researchers reported Tuesday.

Although the study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology covered only 21 patients, the drug is now being tested in more than 250 men with what appears to be similar results, experts said.

"There is a general sense in the prostate cancer community that this agent 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.

Experts expect the new drug, called abiraterone, to be widely available by 2011. It could find use among most of the 28,000 U.S. men diagnosed each year with the most aggressive and almost-always fatal type of prostate cancer.

The trial was sponsored by Cougar Biotechnology Inc. of Los Angeles, which holds the patent rights to abiraterone.

The drug is also being tested for breast cancer, but no results have been released yet.

Key to the excitement is the drug's unusual way of working.

more:

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-prostate23-2008jul23,0,3393034.story