6 June 2019

Prostate Cancer Treatment

Breast cancer drug could be used to fight prostate tumours
Prostate Cancer | Where The Money Goes
1 MIN READ
The first personalised drug for prostate cancer is set to revolutionise treatment and extend the lives of thousands.
 
A daily pill using a patient’s genetic make-up to undermine a tumour’s defences is said to work in 80% of men with certain genes.
 
Experts believe the treatment – which is already available for ovarian cancer – could benefit up to 4,000 men every year, delaying the moment when the disease becomes deadly.
 
Speaking at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual conference in Chicago, lead researcher Professor Johann de Bono of the Institute of Cancer Research in London, said:
 
“Our study is exciting because it shows just how powerful genetic targeting and precision medicine can be.”
 
“We were delighted to see such strong responses in men with very advanced cancers, where BRCA mutations and other faults in DNA repair genes were present within their tumours.”
 
“The next phase of the trials is now under way and, if the results look as good as we hope, we should see Olaparib starting to reach the clinic for men with prostate cancer in the next couple of years.”
 
Paul Villanti, Executive Director of Programs at Movember, commented: “It’s very exciting to see results which show how existing treatments such as Olaparib could be repurposed to benefit men with the BRCA2 gene mutation. We hope this will give clinicians another weapon in their arsenal in the fight against advanced prostate cancer.”

Full Times article here.