Immune system drugs offer cancer ‘lifeline’

DRUGS WHICH target the immune system may offer a lifeline to men with the deadliest forms of prostate cancer, research suggests.

Scientists found that some men with a super-aggressive prostate cancer caused by DNA defects are likely to respond well to immunotherapy.

They studied tumour samples and genetic information from patients to make the breakthrough.

Professor Johann de Bono, from The Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden Hospital, said: “Our study found that some men with advanced prostate cancers have genomic mutations in their tumours that make the disease unstable, aggressive and resistant to standard therapies.

“We made an exciting step forward in working out how to treat men with such aggressive, unstable tumours.

“We are now developing tests that could pick out patients with these mutations, and we’re running new clinical trials to see if immunotherapy can offer new hope for these men.”

Each year around 47,000 men in the UK develop prostate cancer and around 12,000 die from the disease.

Meanwhile, study has revealed a “worrying” reduction in the number of people who have taken part in bowel cancer screening.

Experts found that between 2010 and 2015, the number of people aged 60 to 64 who took part in their first bowel screening reduced from 53 per cent to 49 per cent. Cancer Research UK warned that for those who choose to take part in screening, the risk of dying from bowel cancer is 25 per cent lower than for those who do not.

Professor Anne Mackie, Public Health England’s Director of Screening said: “People are putting their lives unnecessarily at risk by missing out on a bowel screen test, which significantly reduces your risk of dying from bowel cancer. We want more people to get tested as thousands more lives could be saved.”