Prostate cancer pill could extend more lives than previously thought

0
Prostate cancer pill could extend more lives than previously thought

A prostate cancer pill already available on the NHS could extend the lives of more men than previously thought, an “exciting” new study has found.

Researchers have discovered that a drug called olaparib, one of a new class of treatments called PARP inhibitors, could be used to treat a wider range of cancer patients than it is currently approved for.

It is already used as a life-extending treatment for men with a form of prostate cancer caused by a mutation of the BRCA gene, and that has also spread to other parts of the body, making it incurable.

The new study from the Institute of Cancer Research in London (ICR) suggests that a wider pool of patients without these mutations may benefit from the treatment, which comes in pill form and has fewer side effects than chemotherapy.

The researchers set out to examine the effect of this class of drug on men with advanced prostate cancer who have lost the DNA repair protein RNASEH2B in some of their cancer cells.

By examining biopsies taken from 124 men with advanced prostate cancer, they found this protein loss, also known as a genetic aberration, was “common” after discovering it in about 44 per cent of samples.

Some cancers are very vulnerable to targeted drug

They also discovered that a small number of patients with RNASEH2B loss who were treated with olaparib appeared to have months of relapse-free survival, despite not having a BRCA mutation.

Johann de Bono, regius professor of cancer research at the ICR, and consultant medical oncologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We have identified a genomic aberration that is found in some prostate cancers that makes them very vulnerable to a targeted cancer drug, called a PARP inhibitor, which comes in pill form and has much fewer side effects than chemotherapy.”

He said it built on earlier evidence that the number of patients that could benefit from the novel treatments “could be expanded”.

And he added: “This is the first time this has been shown in prostate cancer.

“Further research is urgently needed to validate these findings and the tests that would identify tumours sensitive to PARP inhibitors beyond BRCA gene mutations so we can provide a new treatment option for patients with advanced prostate cancer.”

Prof Kristian Helin, chief executive of the ICR, said: “Precision medicines targeted to specific genetic faults are transforming treatment for many cancers, including prostate cancer.

We don’t yet have the full picture

“However, we currently don’t yet have the full picture of who exactly will respond to a particular drug and who won’t.

“A lot of work is needed to try to find out what underpins that response. So, it is very exciting to see these results which are helping to identify a wider group of men with advanced prostate cancer, who may be able to benefit from longer relapse-free survival and better quality of life.”

Dr Hayley Luxton, research impact manager at Prostate Cancer UK, which part-funded the research, added: “These drugs have already begun to revolutionise the way we treat cancer, moving us away from the old ‘one-size fits all’ approach, and what’s important now is to figure out exactly who will benefit the most.

“We already knew that these drugs helped men with mutations in specific genes like BRCA, and this exciting research shows they could also benefit a completely different group of men whose cancer cells have lost a novel marker called RNASEH2B.

“We now look forward to future research that will identify how we can test for this and make these life-extending drugs available to even more men.”

The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *