- Combining two drugs can dramatically increase chances for survival
- One researcher said it was the most 'powerful results' he'd seen
- Every year more than 45,000 men in the UK are diagnosed with prostate cancer
British researchers have discovered that combining two drugs can dramatically boost survival rates among men suffering from aggressive prostate cancer.
By adding abiraterone to standard hormone therapy, they cut the death rate by 37 per cent, compared with that for men on normal hormone therapy alone.
Professor Nicholas James of Birmingham University, who led the trial, said last night: 'These are the most powerful results I've seen from a prostate cancer trial - it's a once-in-a-career feeling.
By combining abiraterone and hormone therapy, researchers managed to cut the death rate to prostate cancer by 37 per cent
'This is one of the biggest reductions in death I've seen in any clinical trial for adult cancers.' Half of the 1,917 men in the trial received hormone therapy alone and the other half the combination. In the former group there were 262 deaths, and in the latter 184.
The results were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago yesterday.
Each year more than 45,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer in the UK, and 11,000 die. At the moment abiraterone, also known as Zytiga, can be used on the NHS for patients with advanced prostate cancer.
Researchers described the breakthrough as the most powerful results they've yet seen and a 'once-in-a-career' feeling
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4570406/Breakthrough-prostate-cancer-boosts-survival-rate.html
