Health

Prostate Cancer Pill Could Be Major Breakthrough

DENVER (CBS4) ― Researchers are reporting a major breakthrough in fighting prostate cancer. They say a new pill appears to successfully treat 80 percent of men with advanced disease.

"These are men who have basically been told, 'not much there can be done,'" CBS4 Medical Editor Dr. Dave Hnida said. "They took this new medication and got results that surprised even the researchers."

Prostate cancer can be a rough disease. After lung cancer it is the leading cancer killer of men. That's why news of a medication that may help cure even the most advanced cases will offer hope to millions of men who have been told their cancers were incurable.

When Rick Pflaum's prostate cancer moved to his bones, the slightest movement caused incredible pain. Then he started taking an experimental drug called abiraterone.

"Within about three months the reversal was incredibly dramatic in that I was able to return to normal activities," Pflaum said.

The daily pill blocks hormones that fuel prostate cancer.

In a small study, researchers gave the drug to men with an aggressive and advanced form of the disease. In most, tumor size shrunk significantly and a key indicator of cancer, the Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) level, dropped as well.

"It targets one of the Achilles heels of the tumor that really contributes to its growth and progression," Dr. Howard Scher with the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center said.

Scher will now do a large major study.

"This is an international trial which will look at whether or not the drug prolongs life and is safe," he said.

Abiraterone isn't a cure by itself. It is improving the lives of patients who did not respond to other treatments.

"Swimming and bicycling and just generally living a normal life," Pflaum said.

"The pill works by blocking testosterone, which when you have prostate cancer, feeds the cancer; sort of like gasoline on a fire," Hnida said. "The hope is to get these men under control. (They) can go back and use other therapies which didn't work before but now may."

If future study results are equally promising, the drug could be widely available within three years.

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