Made in BC treatment offers hope to men fighting prostate cancer
Posted December 2, 2015 11:17 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – It’s being called a major milestone in the fight against prostate cancer.
Researchers at the BC Cancer Agency and the UBC have been approved to leave the lab with their odds-defying breakthrough drug and begin clinical trials.
BC Cancer Agency scientist Dr. Marianne Sadar says the statistical chances of reaching this milestone of are one in 1,000.
“It’s a brand new mechanism for prostate cancer and it has the potential to overcome the resistance mechanisms that most prostate cancer will form.”
The new drug, dubbed EPI-506, targets the end of a protein on prostate cancer cells to make them more vulnerable to hormones like testosterone.
“The drug that we’re introducing into the clinic today is the first new mechanism in over 25 years.”
While the effectiveness of earlier trial drugs that targeted the protein’s front quickly waned, lab research indicates this new treatment successfully slows tumour growth past the early stages of treatment.
Phase I clinical trials begin today at sites across North America for the drug, which received $2.6 million from the BC Cancer Foundation over its 17-year development.
