Prostate cancer: Here's the new drug that can add 2 years to patients' lives

Prostate cancer is among the diseases that affect men. For those who have more severe or terminal cases, there is a new drug that could add a few more years to their lifespan.

Yorkshire Coast Radio reports that a study conducted by researchers on patients with advanced prostate cancer revealed to increase two more years to their lives via immunotherapy paired with an antibiotic. The antibiotic in question is referred to as pembrolizumab, which was later given to the patients who responded well to the treatment. It bears noting that it was a very small number of people, one out of 20 men who have advanced prostate cancer, were able to respond well.

The most significant responses from the patients were seen in the patients whose tumors have mutations in the genes that help repair the DNA. The researchers believe that the patients who responded well could really benefit from going through immunotherapy.

Immunotherapy is a kind of treatment that uses the body’s immune system to fight cancer. The immune system would then recognize and attack the cancer cells.

Medicalxpress reports another breakthrough for prostate cancer. Scientists from the University of Bath have been able to identify a new set or family of drugs that can potentially fight prostate cancer.

The researchers from the Department of Pharmacy & Pharmacology and Chemistry conducted a study on the protein referred to as a-methyacyl-CoA-racemase or AMACR for short. The levels of the AMACR protein and the activity went up by ~10-fold in all stages of prostate cancers as well as other types of cancers. They found that by reducing the levels of this protein through genetic techniques, it will result in the cancer cells being less aggressive. In turn, it will also behave like normal cells.

For a long time, being able to precisely measure the levels of AMACR activity proved to be difficult until this discovery. The scientists also studied the structure known as a side-chain was varied to be able to identify the important structural features that are needed to effectively inhibit the activity of the cancer-inducing protein. The results saw an increase in the drugs’ efficacy by 20-fold compared to existing drugs.

Dr. Matthew Lloyd, who serves as the study’s lead author coming from the Department of Pharmacy & Pharmacology, expressed that this study is very important as it would give very “detailed information on the structure of these drugs and provides a rational basis for understanding their behavior.”

He goes on to say that they have “very promising avenues to explore” as they continue to work towards developing new treatments to beat prostate cancer as well as the other cancers AMACR is associated with.