Cancer research: A chemotherapy drug, currently used for treating breast and lung cancers, could help to increase survival rates among men with advanced prostate cancer by more than a fifth, new research suggests.
Clinical trials on almost 1,000 patients from more than 20 countries, including Ireland, showed how use of the Aventis drug Taxotere, also known as Docetaxel, reduced risk of death by 20 to 24 per cent in serious cases of prostate cancer.
One of the lead investigators in the trials, Dr Daniel Petrylak, who was in Dublin this week to present the findings to a clinical symposium, said the research was a breakthrough for a group of patients for whom "everything else had failed".
"It is the first time we have seen anything that makes these patients live longer," he said.
"The patients are incurable but we have been able to extend their life span, and improve their quality of life."
In the first of two studies, 327 patients from 23 countries, including Ireland, were chosen for one of three treatment regimes involving Taxotere, supplemented by prednisone, or mitoxantrone.
In the second study, 770 US patients were given Taxotere, supplemented by estramustine, or mitoxantrone, over different time periods.
Dr Petrylak, a urological oncologist at Columbia University, New York, said the majority of patients in the trials were over 65 years, and had been given just a year to 18 months to live. He said men with less advanced prostate cancers could benefit even more from the drug, although he conceded the treatment might not be suitable for everyone.
"We still don't have a good marker to identify who will benefit from treatment and who we should watch instead. Early detection and possible surgery may help some patients. But it may not be the best for everyone and we need better ways of finding out."
PSA (Prostate Specific Antibodies) tests are used to identify cases of prostate cancer. The disease often goes untreated on the basis that other ailments will more quickly bring about the patient's death. Nonetheless, up to 500 men a year are said to die in Ireland from the disease.
Dr Petrylak warned against complacency: "It's no longer a disease for frail old men. People are living longer, and it's going to be an increasing problem for the future.
"It is true some patients will die with prostate cancer rather than from it. But 30,000 men die each year in the US from the disease. It's the second most common cancer among men after lung cancer."
Dr John McCaffrey, consultant medical oncologist at the Mater Hospital, Dublin, welcomed the new research: "For the first time a chemotherapy drug - Taxotere - has been shown to extend life in men with advanced prostate cancer when hormone treatment fails to work.
"Freedom from pain and other distressing symptoms was more likely to occur if Taxotere was given to these men. Before now, chemotherapy improved quality of life but not length of life. Taxotere has delivered on both levels, which are obviously crucial to patients - longer life and better quality to that life," he said.
Dr Tracy Cunningham, medical director of Avendis Ireland, described the research as "a significant milestone" in cancer care.
"In Ireland, Taxotere is already approved in breast and lung cancer and, based on this excellent data, we expect it soon to be licensed in prostate cancer as well," she said.
