Two-thirds of patients treated with a new prostate cancer drug had rapid and dramatic improvements in the treatment of tumors that had spread to the bone, according to a new study.
Researchers with the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center said the findings indicate the drug cabozantinib could provide a strong new weapon in men with even advanced cases of the disease.
"The effects of cabozantinib on bone scans are unprecedented in the treatment of prostate cancer," said Dr. David C. Smith, a professor of internal medicine and urology at the University of Michigan Medical School who headed up the study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Cabozantinib is designed to shut down the growth and spread of prostate cancer. Smith’s study found the drug had the most effect on tumors that had spread to the bone, the major site where prostate cancer spreads. These tumors are typically very difficult to treat.
To test the drug’s effectiveness, Smith and his colleagues enrolled 171 prostate cancer patients whose tumors no longer responded to hormone-based therapies. After just 12 weeks of treatment, researchers noted dramatic improvements in bone scans of the men. In addition, 67 percent of patients with bone pain reported an improvement in pain control and 56 percent decreased or eliminated narcotic painkillers after treatment with cabozantinib.
"Stabilization of disease in advanced prostate cancer is rarely due to the natural history of the disease and is in this case due to drug effect," Smith said.
Researchers are continuing to enroll patients for follow-up studies of the drug, which is not now offered routinely in clinical care. For information about prostate cancer treatment or clinical trials at the UM Comprehensive Cancer Center, call 800-865-1125 or visit www.UMClinicalStudies.org/cancer.
Nearly 242,000 Americans will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year and 28,170 will die from the disease, according to the American Cancer Society.