The Times Tuesday July 26 2024
New Prostate cancer drug ‘revolutionising way we treat disease’
Eleanor Hayward – Health Editor
Thousands of men than previously thought could benefit from a revolutionary prostate cancer drug in ‘substantial advance’ against the disease. A team at the Institute for Cancer Research in London (ICR) looked at a drug called Olaparib, a type of targeted treatment called a PARP inhibitor. Since last year the drug has been available to men with advanced prostate cancer caused by BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic mutations. This means about 550 a year receive it on the NHS, a fraction of the 55,100 patients who develop the cancer each year in the UK.
But the new study suggested it could benefit a different group of men without the BRCA genetic mutations. Researchers found the drugs killed cancer cells in men with advanced prostate cancer who have ‘lost’ the DNA repair protein RNASEH2B in some cancer cells. This common type of genetic aberration was found in about 44 percent of samples from the 124 men in the study. Treatment with the drug shrunk their cancers. A small number with RNASEH2B loss who were treated with Olaparib appeared to have months of relapse-free survival, despite not having a BRCA1/2 mutation.
There are about 12,000 prostate cancer deaths in the UK every year. Doctors said further trials would be needed to see whether PARP inhibitor drugs may be a treatment option for a wider group of men in the future. Professor 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 vulnerable to a targeted cancers drug, a PARP inhibitor, which comes in pill form and has fewer side effects than chemotherapy. This Is a substantial advance. This is the first time this has been shown in prostate cancer.” Dr Hayley Luxton, research impact manager at Prostate Cancer UK, which part-funded the research said. “These drugs have begun to revolutionise the way we treat cancer.”
Separate analysis by Cancer Research UK found that the number of cancer patients waiting 104 days to begin treatment after an urgent suspected cancer referral in England has tripled in five years. It urged the government to provide equipment and staff it “desperately needs to diagnose and treat patients on time.”
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