Risk of Death by Prostate Cancer Can be Reduced by Hormone Therapy

The new study shows that the death rate of Prostate Cancer can be reduced by hormone therapy. The survival rate for thousands of men with aggressive Prostate Cancer could improve. Abiraterone, which is used in men whose Prostate Cancer has spread, can also help some with localised disease, researchers found.

Stampede trial results were presented yesterday to cancer specialists. It is likely to change the standard of care worldwide.  The chief investigator of the trial, Professor Nick James, of the Institute of Cancer Research in London and Royal Marsden hospital said that the results are the first study of intensified hormone therapy in this group.

The expensive daily tablets cost £35,500 a year privately, although how much the NHS pays is not known. However, the new British-led trial in a different group of men, whose Prostate Cancer had not spread, found abiraterone, taken for just two years, greatly improved their chances of survival. Experts hope the drug could be made available on the NHS ‘soon’ following the results.

Researchers tracked 988 men given hormone therapy, with most of them getting it alongside radiotherapy, which is the usual treatment. They compared them with 986 men receiving the usual treatment, plus abiraterone.Over six years, men given the combination of drugs including abiraterone were 51% less likely to die than those on the normal treatment. Only 18% of them had seen cancer spread through their body, compared with 31% of those not given the combination.