A team at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, New York has achieved unexpected success by using an experimental treatment for advanced prostate cancer. The results were so good, the researchers are going forward with a second trial using higher doses.
Prostate Cancer Advances Slowly
The prostate is a small gland in males about the size of a walnut that produces seminal fluid. Prostate cancer is a common affliction in men, hitting about one in six. The cancer progresses slowly and a simple blood test as well as a physical examination can detect it early.
The Mayo Clinic says that, “A diagnosis of prostate cancer can be scary not only because it can be life-threatening, but also because treatments can cause side effects such as bladder control problems and erectile dysfunction (impotence). But, diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer have gotten much better in recent years.”
Treatment in the initial phases of the disease is usually successful in halting its spread.
Advanced Stage Prostate Cancer
At Cancer Research in the United Kingdom they offer some statistics of survivability. In men with stage one prostate cancer, 98 percent live for more than five years; “but in men with high grade cancers, just over two out of three (67 percent) lived for more than five years.”
Stage four prostate cancers are more problematic. "In about 20 to 30 out of every 100 men the cancer has spread to another part of their body when they are diagnosed with prostate cancer…About one in three men with advanced prostate cancer (30 percent) will live for at least five years after they are diagnosed.”
It is this last group that the team at the Mayo Clinic has been treating.
New Treatment Offers Hope
Hormone treatment has been used to try and shrink the tumour as a way of buying time. Reporting on the new approach BBC News (June 19, 2009) said, “The trial was set up to see if MDX-010, a type of drug called a monoclonal antibody, would improve on hormone treatment. The idea is that the drug will encourage a strong immune response to attack the cancer cells…
“In three cases, where the experimental drug was given, the tumours shrank dramatically, enabling surgeons to operate and remove the tumour.” Apparently, 20 other patients are showing improvements as well
Dr. Michael Blute is the study leader and the surgeon involved. The BBC quotes him as saying, “I had never seen anything like this before. I had a hard time finding the cancer.
“At one point the pathologist (who was working during surgery) asked if we were sending him samples from the same patient.”
There is now a need for a large-scale study to see if the Mayo results can be replicated or if they are just a one-off anomaly.
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