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With drugs that inhibit the growth promoting effect of male bad hormones (androgens) at several levels, better treatment of prostate cancer patients without metastases, but a high risk is likely to become possible in the future. The "New England Journal of Medicine" has published a second revolutionary study. "Once again, a clinical trial modifying the treatment of prostate cancer has been published and will lead to a new worldwide drug approval," said Viennese oncologist Michael Krainer (MedUni Vienna / AKH) at the University of Vienna. ; APA. He and urologist Linz Wolfgang Loidl (KH Merciful Sisters) are mentioned in the appendix of the study as "Investigators" involved.
The Context: Even prostate cancer becomes incurable when metastases appear. Therefore, the drug tries to prevent the progression of the disease and the formation of secondary tumors. Patients with prostate cancer often respond very well to a suppression of androgen production (especially testosterone), which is equivalent to castration. But the effect usually only lasts for a while. The reappearance or progression of the disease is mainly due to a rapid increase in levels of PSA (specific prostate antigen) in the blood.
New drugs such as apalutamide or enzalutamide further inhibit the androgen signaling pathway by binding to the androgen receptor on tumor cells and blocking the cascade of androgen signals to the core. Following the use of such agents in already metastatic prostate cancer, it is currently used to prevent the development of secondary tumors in prostate cancer patients and rapidly increase PSA levels in the blood ( doubling every ten months or more). Krainer said, "We call this the stage of non-metastatic and castration-resistant prostate cancer."
At the beginning of the year, the SPARTAN study was published in the "New England Journal of Medicine". contributed to urologists Krainer and Graz. "In this study, apalutamide and androgen suppressive therapy reduced the risk of metastasis or death by 24 months compared with placebo by 72%," writes Matthew Smith of Mbadachusetts General Hospital ( Boston, United States). ), in a comment. He was the first author of the study SPARTAN
Prostate Cancer
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men in Austria. Each year, about 1,150 people die. Every year, 5,000 Austrians are diagnosed with prostate cancer. This corresponds to about a quarter of all neoplastic diseases in men. In the EU, prostate cancer was diagnosed in 2015 among 365,000 men – the second most common cancer among men in the world. Patients with hormone-resistant prostate cancer need additional treatment options. According to American estimates, 10 to 20% of all prostate cancers are resistant to castration within five years. Apalutamide is already approved for these patients in the United States
(APA)
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