Prostate cancer is a serious matter; advanced prostate cancer, when the cancer has begun to spread through the body, is even more alarming. While early treatment of prostate cancer is often effective, treating it at a more advanced stage is — for understandable reasons — much more challenging. All of which makes the news that doctors have seen evidence that a new treatment could make inroads against more aggressive forms of prostate cancer that much more promising.
That news comes via The Guardian‘s Andrew Gregory, who detailed the findings of a clinical trial organized by the Institute of Cancer Research, the Royal Marsden and Switzerland’s Institute of Oncology Research. As Gregory recounts, the clinical trial included a combination of AZD5069 and enzalutamide, an experimental drug and a hormone therapy, respectively.
The study was centered around 23 patients whose cancer had stopped responding to existing therapy. As The Guardian‘s article notes, 21 of them were able to be evaluated at the end of the trial. The study’s findings showed that 24% of those subjects studied showed a positive reaction to the therapy, including their tumors shrinking by over 30%.
New Blood Test for Prostate Cancer Could Reduce Need for Biopsies
The test could also cut back on over-diagnosis of the diseaseThe Institute for Cancer Research’s Johann de Bono spoke of the potential applications of this treatment. “This is tremendously exciting and it suggests we have an entirely new way to treat prostate cancer on the horizon,” de Bono told The Guardian. De Bono went on to say that this same therapy could have applications for “multiple cancer types” — an encouraging piece of medical news if ever there was one.
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