Pill Delivers Prostate Cancer Breakthrough

Daily pill shrinks advanced tumors
By Peter Fearon,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 22, 2008 2:07 AM CDT
Pill Delivers Prostate Cancer Breakthrough
An MRI Image shows suspected prostate cancer, later conformed by biopsy. A new drug has proved effective in shrinking advanced prostate cancer tumors.    (AP Photo)

A new experimental pill taken once a day is proving effective against an advanced, aggressive form of prostate cancer which has resisted other therapies, reports Reuters. The drug, abiraterone, created by Cougar Biotechnology, significantly shrank tumors in a clinical trial, according to a study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. It could be available by 2011. Prostate cancer is the second-leading cancer killer of men after lung cancer.

"This drug prevents the cancer from making its own hormones that allow the cancer cells to survive," said the lead researcher. "We believe this drug will make a difference." (More Cougar Biotechnology stories.)

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