In An Era Of Bold New Cancer Treatments An Older Drug Shows Real Promise For Advanced Prostate Cancer

The annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology here in Chicago is a place where many commercial interests jostle for attention to make their latest promising therapy the star of the show. But this weekend, a standard widely available generic drug stole the show by producing incredible results in improving survival for men with advanced prostate cancer. And that has some of us asking, "Why did it take so long to find out? The drug is docetaxel, which for decades has been used to treat a number of cancers, including prostate cancers. We have known for some time that it is helpful in the treatment of men who have prostate cancer that has spread and no longer responds to hormone treatments (which are called "androgen deprivation therapy" or ADT and are the first line of treatment for most men when their prostate cancer first recurs). But we didn't know if docetaxel would benefit men with advanced prostate cancer if it was used earlier, when used in combination with ADT at the time of first recurrence. To find out, researchers studied men who developed or presented with prostate cancer that had spread to the bone and other parts of the body were randomly assigned to receive the standard ADT treatment or ADT plus docetaxel. Almost half the men had previously received either radiation treatment or had their prostates removed as primary treatment for their cancer. The remainder presented initially with disease that had spread elsewhere. Some men had what was called ...
Source: Dr. Len's Cancer Blog - Category: Cancer Authors: Tags: Cancer Care Medications Prostate Cancer Treatment Source Type: blogs