The new hope
has been able to live a normal life. He s: “I had around five tumours in my mph nodes, but now there is only one der my collarbone that is visible on RI and bone scans.”
While Peter says he was lucky not to perience any side effects m taking olaparib, some tients have reported fering anaemia and nausea. t overall it’s kinder than emotherapy.
The findings of another trial led PROfound, also led by fessor de Bono’s team, and blished last month in the w England of Journal of dicine, confirmed that olaparib ayed the progression of advanced prose cancer in men who had alterations one or more of 15 repair genes.
Professor de Bono says: “Olaparib targets an Achilles heel in cancer cells while sparing normal, healthy cells and can outperform targeted hormone treatments in some men with advanced prostate cancer.”
Men with faulty BRCA1, BRCA2 and ATM genes benefited the most from the treatment, with their disease taking about seven months before it progressed, compared with around three months for men who received hormone therapies.
The breakthrough is the climax of a decade of research involving collaboration between scientific teams around the world, supported by funding from the Prostate Cancer Foundation, Movember and Prostate Cancer
UK. Researchers are now hoping to see olaparib become available on the NHS within the next two years.
Professor de Bono says: “I can’t wait to see this drug start reaching men who could benefit from it. Next, we will be assessing how we can combine olaparib with other treatments, which could help men with prostate cancer and faulty DNA repair genes live even longer.”
TREATMENT
Dr Buzza adds: “The results of the PROfound study show for the first time that genetic testing can now inform treatment decisions for some men with advanced disease. It points towards a drug tailored to their genetic profile.
“It’s a revolutionary approach to treating prostate cancer because it means fewer men will needlessly suffer the side effects of treatments that are unlikely to work for their particular disease. Olaparib opens up a whole new treatment option for men who have certain DNA damage repair mutations.”
Nearly two years on, Peter is still taking olaparib. Although his disease is showing some signs of progressing again, he feels very fortunate to have been able to enjoy a good quality of life over the last two years.
“I really feel that I’ve been incredibly lucky,” he says simply. “I take my dog for a walk every day, read books I’ve never got around to reading before and I’ve been able to spend time with my family which has been lovely.”
■ To find out more about the signs and symptoms of prostate cancer go to movember.com
A non-invasive test that looks for biomarkers secreted by prostate cancer into urine is being developed by researchers at the University of East Anglia. The PUR (Prostate Urine Risk) test has the potential to identify men whose disease is more aggressive and are likely to require active treatment and who can safely stay on active surveillance. The at-home test, which is being tested on 450 men over the next three years, may even be able to spare men from repeated biopsies.
Usually when prostate cancer has spread to other parts of the body, it is considered incurable. However, US researchers have now demonstrated in the ORIOLE study that intense doses of highlyfocused radiation, known as stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR), could slow the disease in men with up to five spots of cancer which have spread outside the prostate.
Immunotherapy, which works by helping the immune system recognise and attack cancer, is already routinely used on the NHS for skin, kidney and lung cancers. Although prostate cancers do not typically show much immune activity, a small number of ‘super responders’ with end-stage disease saw their tumours shrink when they took part in a trial of the drug pembrolizumab at the Institute of Cancer Research. The men who responded carried specific mutations linked to DNA repair so the challenge for scientists is to work out which men will best respond to the treatment.
‘‘ Olaparib targets cancer cells with faulty DNA repair genes and kills them