‘Turbo-charged’ drug blasts away prostate cancer
PROSTATE cancer sufferers who had been given just weeks to live are surviving far longer using a drug that shrinks tumours by turbo-charging their immune system.
More than a third of men with very advanced cancer who were given the drug pembrolizumab are still alive after a year, according to a British-led study.
and one in ten have seen their cancer stopped in its tracks, with tumours ceasing to grow.
It offers hope to men such as former BBC Breakfast host Bill Turnbull, who revealed earlier this year he had prostate cancer that has spread to his legs, hips, pelvis and ribs, although the 62- year- old has been given between ten and 18 years to live.
The study is the first to show that immunotherapy – which harnesses the body’s own defences to destroy tumours – can help some men with prostate cancer.
The technique is expected to create a new generation of cancer drugs in the coming years.
The results of this trial, led by a team at London’s Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and the Royal Marsden NHs Foundation Trust, will be presented at the american society of Clinical oncology (asCo) annual meeting in Chicago. Professor Johann de Bono, director of the ICR drug development unit, said: ‘I have these men who are basically dying, with weeks to months to live, who we gave this drug to and had complete responses. Their cancers shrunk, disappeared actually, with minimal cancer left on scans.’
He added: ‘These are amazing results. These are men whose cancers had all the treatments, they had everything possible,
CAMPAIGN ENDTHE NEEDLESS PROSTATE DEATHS
they’ve got no treatments left and they are in trouble.’
Immunotherapy drugs work by stimulating the immune system to recognise and fight cancer, and are used to treat some advanced forms, including lung and melanoma.
The trial of 258 men with advanced prostate cancer found they lived much longer when treated with pembrolizumab, which blocks the proteins that can prevent a cancer patient’s white blood cells from killing cancer cells.
around 38 per cent of the men were still alive after a year and 11 per cent saw their tumour stop growing, the results show.
Professor de Bono said: ‘Immunotherapy has changed the way we treat many advanced cancers, but up to now no one had demonstrated a benefit in men with prostate cancer. This will be another arrow to the quiver for a subset of prostate cancers. The results are preliminary but very promising.’
While only 5 per cent of men in the trial saw their tumours shrink or disappear after treatment, many of those had mutations in genes involved in repairing DNa in their tumours. The researchers suggest these mutating cancer cells may be easier for the immune system to recognise and attack because they look different from healthy cells.
at the moment, only about one in five cancer patients respond to immunotherapy, and scientists do not yet fully understand why.
Professor Paul Workman, the ICR chief executive, said: ‘Immunotherapy has proven to be a smarter, kinder treatment, but it still only works for a minority of patients. The challenges we face are how to predict in advance who will benefit, and how to make immunotherapy work for more people.’