MADRID, 27 ( EUROPA PRESS)
A new drug of Astellas Pharma still in research, the MDV3100, has shown that it can prolong the life of patients with prostate cancer advanced previously treated with chemotherapy in nearly five months, according to data presented at the last Congress of the European society of Urology (EAU, in its acronym in English), held in Paris (France).
This drug, developed by Astellas Pharma and Medivation, is a new oral inhibitor of the signalling of the androgen receptors in clinical development for advanced prostate cancer.
The results of the study in phase III presented in Paris confirmed that MDV3100 produces a statistically significant improvement in overall survival, with a median on the placebo of 4.8 months.
In addition, the drug was generally well tolerated by patients and met all the secondary assessment criteria. Frequent side effects included fatigue, diarrhea and flushing. Other adverse events of interest were fatigue, cardiac disorders (including myocardial infarction), seizures and alterations of liver function tests.
“The prolongation of the life of patients at this late stage of his illness is our main objective, but it is extremely important to balance the prolongation of life with the impact of treatment on their quality of life,” said Professor Axel Heidenreich, Chief and director of the Department of Urology at the University Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) in Aachen (Germany).
Therefore, she added, these data are “hopeful” that, in addition to increasing the time to progression of the disease and have a significant beneficial effect on survival, “this is achieved without a major impact on the patient because of adverse effects”.
