New Drug Offer Hope To Patients With Late Stage Prostate Cancer
At present, metastatic and hormonal-refractory prostate cancer patients who have failed 1st line chemotherapy will be given mitoxantrone plus prednisone as the salvage therapy. However, mitoxantrone plus prednisone is not very effective in controlling metastatic prostate cancer. Now, a new drug developed by sanofi-aventis might offer hope to patients who have failed 1st line chemotherapy (docetaxel plus prednisone).
The new drug called cabazitaxel was investigated in the TROPIC trial that included 755 advanced prostate cancer patients who have failed 1st line docetaxel chemotherapy. Half of the patients in the trial received combination of cabazitaxel and prednisone while the other half received mitoxantrone and prednisone.
After one year of treatment, men in the cabazitaxel arm had an overall median survival of 15.1 months, compared to 12.7 months among men in the mitoxantrone arm. Patients who received the combination treatment with cabazitaxel also experienced a significant increase in median progression-free survival, 2.8 months vs. 1.4 months. Note that cabazitaxel was also associated with a 30 percent reduced risk of dying.
Like other chemotherapies, cabazitaxel was associated with side-effects such as low white blood cells (81.7%), low white blood cells with fever (7.5%), diarrhea (6.2%) and infections (10.2%).
This drug has not been approved by FDA, but is under the fast track approval process - process designed to expedite the review of drugs being developed for serious diseases with the potential to address an unmet medical need. To participate in clinical trials, you may visit www.clinicaltrials.gov for details and contact your physicians.
http://en.sanofi-aventis.com/binaries/20100304_Asco_GU_en_tcm28-27547.pdf
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Karman is a registered pharmacist who has spent time in the United States, Canada and Asia. Her primary areas of focus are cancer, CNS disorders and fungal infections. Within cancer, she has special interests in melanoma, brain cancer and thyroid cancer. Visit us at healthreason.com for health articles that relate to you.
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