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In study, one-third benefited from taking Zytiga plus hormonetherapy for 6 months before surgery. By Amanda Gardner HealthDay Reporter WEDNESDAY, May 16 (HealthDay News) -- A drug approved to treatadvanced prostate cancer appears to help men who have localizedhigh-risk prostate cancer if given before surgery. Adding Zytiga (abiraterone) to conventional hormonal treatmentseliminated or nearly eliminated the prostate cancer in one-third ofmen with this often-lethal form, according to new research to bepresented at next month's annual meeting of the American Society ofClinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago. "This is one of the first -- if not the first -- study to show thatyou can make prostate cancer in the prostate gland itself disappearin a reproducible number of patients," ASCO official Dr. NicholasVogelzang said at a Wednesday press conference. Commenting on the findings, Dr. Jay Brooks, chairman ofhematology/oncology at Ochsner Health System in Baton Rouge, said,"This is exciting. It's a novel way to eliminate cancer beforesurgery." However, Brooks, who was not involved in the study, cautioned thatthe findings were still preliminary and need further investigation. Trying to shrink a tumor with chemotherapy and/or radiation beforesurgery is standard for other types of cancer, such as breast orcolon, but hasn't to date shown a benefit in prostate cancer, studyauthor Dr. Mary-Ellen Taplin, associate professor of medicine atHarvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston,explained at the news conference. Localized high-risk prostate cancer, which is defined as prostatecancer in men with a prostate-specific antigen level above 20,high-grade disease (a Gleason score of 8 or more), and stage T3disease (indicating the tumor has spread through the prostate),carries with it a poor prognosis. Standard hormonal therapy, which stops the production of malehormones (androgens), has not been shown to be effective in thistype of cancer when given before surgery. Nor has the surgery,which removes the entire prostate. Zytiga blocks production of testosterone, which can promote thegrowth of prostate cancer cells, but in a different way thanestablished hormonal treatments. This small, phase 2 trial involved 56 men with an average age of58, all of whom had had at least three positive biopsies forprostate cancer. For the first three months, 27 men received the standard hormonaltherapy leuprolide alone, followed by leuprolide plus Zytiga foranother three months. The remaining 29 men received the two-drug combination for thewhole six months, after which all men in both groups underwentprostate surgery. One-third of the men who had received leuprolide plus Zytiga forthe entire six months saw complete or nearly complete eliminationof their cancer. By comparison, only 15 percent of men in the other groupexperienced these results, the investigators found. Those who received the combination for only 12 weeks had much lowerresponse rates. The participants also received low doses of the steroid prednisoneto prevent side effects from Zytiga, although side effects overallwere minimal, said Taplin. It's not clear at this point why some men responded to thecombination therapy while others did not, and that is an area thatneeds to be studied, the researchers said. "In highly select people who have this aggressive type of prostatecancer, I think this is an important area to investigate," Brooksnoted. "We need to figure out which patients would potentiallybenefit." According to study author Taplin, the research received somefunding from Johnson & Johnson, the maker of Zytiga. She saidthe drug is currently U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approvedfor patients with advanced prostate cancer that does not respond tohormone therapy, and costs about $5,000 per month. The data and conclusions of research presented at medical meetingsshould be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewedjournal. More information The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more on treatments for prostate cancer. SOURCES: Jay Brooks, M.D., chairman, hematology/oncology, OchsnerHealth System, Baton Rouge, La.; May 16, 2012, American Society ofClinical Oncology press conference with Nicholas Vogelzang, M.D.,and Mary-Ellen Taplin, M.D., associate professor, medicine, HarvardMedical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston Copyright © 2012 HealthDay . All rights reserved. I am an expert from china-boilers.com, while we provides the quality product, such as China Water Tube Steam Boiler , China Autoclave Tank, Thermal Oil Boilers,and more.
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