Groundbreaking treatment for prostate cancer helps patients live longer

BOSTON – A breakthrough treatment for prostate cancer, studied here in Boston, helps patients live longer.

The clinical trial helps local patients with late-onset forms of the disease.

This pill changes lives.

"It's every morning, it's four capsules and you take them with water to get you ready for the day," said Brian Shea, a prostate cancer patient.

Shea is part of a clinical trial at Dana Farber for people with advanced prostate cancer.

He was diagnosed just before Christmas 2016.

"There was absolutely nothing that prepared me for diagnosis, it hit me and touched my wife a lot," he said.

With cancer spreading beyond his prostate, Shea's doctors wanted him to test a drug called Enzalutamide that would prevent him from producing testosterone.

His doctors explained that the lack of testosterone would starve his type of cancer.

"If you can remove the fuel from the tumor, the tumor stops growing, the tumor dies," said Shea.

For decades, hormone therapy has been used to reduce testosterone in patients diagnosed with late-stage, hormone-sensitive prostate cancer.

In some patients, this may disappear over time, leading to the return of cancer.

Enzalutamide combined with existing hormone therapy acts as a second layer of protection.

Think of it as a double knot on your shoelace, said Dr. Christopher Sweeney, oncologist at Dana Farber.

"I think it's an excellent badogy," said Sweeney, one of the leading investigators of the Enzamet clinical trial.

Dana Farber was the only US hospital involved in the multinational study.

Sweeney says that, compared to current standard treatments, patients using Enzalutamide during the trial live longer, about 70% after three years.

He says patients continue to take the pill after brief chemotherapy.

"It delays cancer symptoms of growth again," said Sweeney.

The side effects of the Enzalutamide pill are minimal compared to more invasive cancer treatments.

"Being part of this trial allowed me to continue working and to continue doing things I was doing all the time," Shea said.

Shea still takes her Enzalutamide every day and continues to be in remission.

He says that he has learned a lot about himself in recent years and that he could not have lived this without his wife, Maureen.

"The news is difficult and the treatment is long, but in the end, there is hope," he said. "Studies like this give us hope."

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