WebMD: Drug Combo Boosts Prostate Cancer Survival by 40%
WebMD and Healthline recently interviewed Cedars-Sinai urologist Stephen Freedland, MD, about research he co-authored that found a new prostate cancer drug combination cut the risk of death by more than 40% in patients with advanced disease.
The study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress in October, reported that the combination of enzalutamide and leuprolide—currently approved for use in metastatic disease—was effective for improving overall survival in patients whose prostate cancer had returned after primary surgery or radiation therapy.
Prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death among men, behind lung cancer, and more than 300,000 cases are expected to be diagnosed in the United States this year alone, according to the American Cancer Society.
“Many patients when they’re diagnosed with prostate cancer will choose to undergo surgery or radiation with the hope that that cures the cancer. Unfortunately, in about a third of those patients the cancer will come back,” Freedland told Healthline.
An effective treatment option offers new hope for these patients, who can experience a recurrence of their cancer.
Freedland told WebMD that these results mean a 70-year-old man whose prostate cancer returns could live up to another 15 years, thanks to the combination treatment.
"For many of these patients, I think we are turning [prostate cancer] into a chronic disease, which is really exciting,” Freedland said. He expressed optimism about advances in prostate cancer care and treatment.
“We’re really revolutionizing the management of prostate cancer convincingly over and over,” Freedland told Healthline.
Read the complete stories from WebMD and Healthline.