Posted 6/19/2022 12:13 PM (GMT -5)
Here you go Jack. They certainly didn’t make life easy for sharing.
Prostate cancer patients to avoid chemo
Eleanor Hayward
, Health Correspondent
Saturday June 18 2022, 12.01am BST, The Times More than 47,500 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year in the UK, and 11,500 die
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Thousands of men with advanced prostate cancer will be spared chemotherapy after a study paved the way for a new era of personalised treatment.
The research revealed that many men who would usually undergo the treatment could be given hormone therapy alone, with no negative impact on their survival rates. Prostate Cancer UK, which funded the research, said that the findings should be implemented into clinical practice straight away, allowing doctors to “treat smarter, not harder”. Experts at University College London looked at 2,261 men with prostate cancer that was metastatic, meaning cancer cells had spread to other parts of the body such as lymph nodes or bones. Standard treatment for these patients involves a type of chemotherapy called docetaxel, as well as hormone therapies to lower testosterone levels. The study found that chemotherapy was unnecessary for men with “low-burden” advanced prostate cancer, who had smaller tumours. This group did not see any extra survival benefits from chemotherapy compared with receiving hormone therapies alone. It means that thousands of men will be spared gruelling rounds of chemotherapy and side-effects such as nausea, mouth ulcers and fatigue. Instead they can be put straight on cutting-edge hormone therapy medication, such as the tablet enzalutamide, which works by lowering levels of testosterone, which is needed by prostate cancer cells to grow. Doctors will be able target chemotherapy at men who need it the most, granting them precious extra time with loved ones. The study found that chemotherapy boosted five-year survival by 39 per cent in men with large tumours and “high-burden” cancer. More than 47,500 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year in the UK, and 11,500 die. One in eight men will develop the disease in their lifetimeThe new study will accelerate the shift away from a “one size fits all” approach to cancer, with new drugs allowing treatment to be tailored to each individual. Dr Hayley Luxton, research impact manager at Prostate Cancer UK, said: “This is really exciting because it shows exactly how we can get the most from existing prostate cancer treatments. There have been a lot of new treatments approved for prostate cancer in recent years but there’s still so much we don’t know about how they interact with each other and who benefits most. “Since the beginning of the pandemic fewer men have been receiving chemotherapy due to its impact on the immune system. But this analysis shows that some groups of men get a huge boost to their life expectancy, and could be targeted to receive the drug as a priority. Other groups don’t get any benefit at all, so could safely be moved on to other treatments. “All this paves the way for men to receive more personalised, more effective treatments while experiencing fewer side-effects.” about 6,000 men each year are diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer and at present chemotherapy is a standard treatment option for this group. The study looked into the benefits of docetaxel chemotherapy on 2,261 men with metastatic prostate cancer who were monitored for an average of six years. Overall, those with advanced prostate cancer who had chemotherapy were 10 per cent more likely to be alive five years later. However, the benefits of chemotherapy varied hugely according to how big the tumour was and how many metastases — sites where the cancer has spread to — they had. This will now be taken into account when deciding whether or not to give patients chemotherapy. Dr Claire Vale, the study author, said: “Research into new prostate cancer treatments can be incredibly expensive and can take a long time, so this type of analysis, that makes the best use of the information we already have, can make a big difference. “Even then it’s extremely rare to find such clear links between the characteristics of the patient and how effective their treatment is going to be. In this case, the evidence is clear, and we want to make sure it’s incorporated into clinical practice as soon as possible.” The research was presented last week at the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago.
John Swayne struggled to get a diagnosis from his GP
When John Swayne was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer in May 2019, he was told he had about two years to live. However, he is now “back to normal” thanks to hormone therapy drugs that have kept his cancer under control. Swayne, 59, from Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, struggled to get a diagnosis from his GP but was eventually told he had metastatic prostate cancer that had spread to his bones. A few months later he began a course of six sessions of chemotherapy that “completely wiped him out”. Swayne is now taking the hormone drug bicalutamide, a once-a-day tablet that stops testosterone from reaching cancer cells. Swayne, who runs a carpentry and joinery business, said: “I’ve got an 11-month old granddaughter and my daughter is getting married this year. Both of those are things I never thought I’d see when I got diagnosed. I’ve got a lot to live for.”
Behind the story
Cancer treatment used to follow a fairly blunt formula: patients could be poisoned with chemotherapy, zapped with radiotherapy or have their tumours surgically removed. This “one size fits all” approach is being replaced with more personalised and bespoke treatments, sparing patients brutal side-effects. Doctors aim to treat cancer “smarter, not harder”, rather than blitzing the body with chemotherapy — which kills healthy cells as well as tumours. New hormone therapy and immunotherapy drugs are targeted specifically at destroying cancer cells or preventing them from spreading. The study showing that thousands of sufferers will no longer need chemotherapy for prostate cancer comes after similar developments in the treatment of bowel and breast cancer. This month, scientists revealed a new blood test that determines whether or not bowel cancer patients will need chemotherapy after surgery, which will spare 6,000 patients a year in the UK from chemotherapy. Prostate cancer has been at the forefront of many recent cancer breakthroughs, and 95 per cent of sufferers now survive for at least five years after diagnosis. Prostate cancer cells feed off testosterone, but hormone therapy drugs work by either stopping your body making testosterone or preventing the hormone from reaching cancer cells. This means that men with advanced prostate cancer that has spread to other parts of their body can live normal lives as the drugs stop their cancer from growing.