Patient lives extended by prostate cancer drug

A major study has shown that advanced prostate cancer patients lives are being extended by nearly two years when they receive early treatment with chemotherapy drug docetaxel.

The drug us usually given to patients after hormone treatment has failed.

But the results of the study, based on a trial in Britain and Switzerland, have shown that earlier treatment can extend patients lives from 43 to 65 months.

Prostate cancer affects over 40,000 men each year, and nearly 11,000 patients in the UK die from the disease.

2,962 men took part in the trial. Some of the patients were given six doses of docetaxel at the beginning of their treatment. Overall, patients who were given the drug lived for a further 10 months, but life expectancy was increased by 22 months in patients where the cancer had spread beyond the pelvis.

One of the researchers of the study, Professor Nicholas James, asked for docetaxel to be given to all patients with prostate cancer that had spread when they were diagnosed.

He said “To see a 22-month survival advantage off six lots of treatment given several years earlier is a very big benefit. We are very pleased by it.”

Fellow researcher Professor Malcolm Mason, added “In prostate cancer it has been used at a much more advanced stage of the illness, for some years – now we know that this chemotherapy should be added earlier, in fact as soon as hormone therapy starts.”

Cancer Research UK have said that the results were “important” and “show that it should be given earlier in a man’s treatment.”

Director of Research at Prostate Cancer UK, Dr Iain Frame, said “The findings of this trial are potentially game-changing – we can’t wait to see the full results.

“Chemotherapy is currently one of the last-resort treatments for advanced prostate cancer.

“If it is shown to have a much greater impact on survival when prescribed earlier and alongside hormone therapy, that’s incredibly exciting, and we would want to see this brought in to the clinic so that it can benefit men without delay.”

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), Medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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