Post by Tony Crispino on Jan 28, 2014 15:12:24 GMT -8
From the ASCO Wire:
This interview Dr Brian Druker, from Dana Farber, touches on personalizing cancer treatment in general, not just PCa specific, and how the last 15 years have changed once deadly cancers into chronic ailments.
The Quest to Optimize Personalized Therapies for Cancer
Again while the article speaks in general terms of cancer, one of the examples states:
"Another example of a breakthrough drug is enzalutamide (Xtandi) for prostate cancer. It was approved by the FDA based on an understanding of why men become resistant to antiandrogen therapy, and it is prolonging survival more than any other drug in a decade for prostate cancer."
That is as strong a statement on the effectiveness of Enzalutamide as I have heard to date. And it's terrific news. For the longest time advocates have argued that the survival benefits of three to six months is negligible. Unless you're one of these men of course that are alive and well. But you have to remember that the settings to get drugs approved sometimes is simply done too late to see how effective the drug would be in an earlier setting. That's where we are with Zytiga and XL184. Zytiga did not even show an overall survival benefit post chemo in men that pretty much failed everything but it was effective at slowing progress and reducing tumor size. We know today that in fact Zytiga does prolong life and it is being tested in earlier settings to see how well.
This is the same for Docetaxel plus Prednisone. CHAARTED showed us that earlier use, not after HT has failed, will in fact prolong life.
So it is that drug sequencing and timing is perhaps crucial to keep men alive for possibly years longer than in the past. The science of Translational Medicine may help us better define what treatment and when is right for each individual patient.
Stay tuned for more on this...
Tony
This interview Dr Brian Druker, from Dana Farber, touches on personalizing cancer treatment in general, not just PCa specific, and how the last 15 years have changed once deadly cancers into chronic ailments.
The Quest to Optimize Personalized Therapies for Cancer
Again while the article speaks in general terms of cancer, one of the examples states:
"Another example of a breakthrough drug is enzalutamide (Xtandi) for prostate cancer. It was approved by the FDA based on an understanding of why men become resistant to antiandrogen therapy, and it is prolonging survival more than any other drug in a decade for prostate cancer."
That is as strong a statement on the effectiveness of Enzalutamide as I have heard to date. And it's terrific news. For the longest time advocates have argued that the survival benefits of three to six months is negligible. Unless you're one of these men of course that are alive and well. But you have to remember that the settings to get drugs approved sometimes is simply done too late to see how effective the drug would be in an earlier setting. That's where we are with Zytiga and XL184. Zytiga did not even show an overall survival benefit post chemo in men that pretty much failed everything but it was effective at slowing progress and reducing tumor size. We know today that in fact Zytiga does prolong life and it is being tested in earlier settings to see how well.
This is the same for Docetaxel plus Prednisone. CHAARTED showed us that earlier use, not after HT has failed, will in fact prolong life.
So it is that drug sequencing and timing is perhaps crucial to keep men alive for possibly years longer than in the past. The science of Translational Medicine may help us better define what treatment and when is right for each individual patient.
Stay tuned for more on this...
Tony