A therapy comprising of three existing drugs has shown promise in patients with prostate cancer, increasing their survival chance, according to a study presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2021.
The use of this cocktail has shown that men can expect to live more than five years after receiving a diagnosis of prostate cancer.
Welcoming the new findings, Prostate Cancer UK said it wants to see the combination therapy made available on the National Health Service (NHS).
The study found that using a combination of abiraterone acetate and prednisolone (AAP) with two other drugs androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) and docetaxel in patients with prostate cancer had an additional 25% reduction in the risk of death.
Study author Prof. Karim Fizazi of the University of Paris-Saclay said the trial is the first to establish that “triplet treatment” should be offered, especially to men with advanced cancers.
He added that additional side effects from this therapy were “mostly mild, with very few severe side-effects.”
“For the first time these men can expect to live more than five years, whereas before 2015 their median survival was less than three years,” Prof. Fizazi said. “By 2022, all three treatments will be generic drugs, which should improve access for patients worldwide.”
Dr. Matthews Hobbs, Director of Research, Prostate Cancer UK, said the study builds on progress already made in this area, adding, “this will make a huge difference for these men, and if the full results confirm these findings, we want to see this combination approved on the NHS as quickly as possible.”
Dr. Hobbs said, “These exciting new results show that giving abiraterone to men with aggressive localized prostate cancer can help stop this from happening, reducing their risk of death from prostate cancer at six years by more than half.”
“We now hope to see abiraterone made available on the NHS for this group of men and look forward to seeing more research published by this impressive study,” he added. “That’s why Prostate Cancer UK is providing £2.5million in funding to help the researchers target prostate cancer treatments to work out which men will benefit most.”
