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Almost 90 per cent of men with advanced prostate cancer carry genetic mutations in their tumours that could be targeted by either existing or new cancer drugs, a landmark new study reveals.
Scientists in the UK and the US have created a comprehensive map of the genetic mutations within lethal prostate cancers that have spread around the body, in a paper being hailed as the disease's 'Rosetta Stone'. Researchers say that doctors could now start testing for these 'clinically actionable' mutations and give patients with advanced prostate cancer existing drugs or drug combinations targeted at these specific genomic aberrations in their cancers. The study was led in the UK by scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, in collaboration with researchers from eight academic clinical trials centres around the world.
Uniquely, doctors at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and at hospitals in the US were able to collect large numbers of samples of metastatic cancers -- cancers that had spread from the original tumour to other parts of the body. Normally these samples are extremely hard to access, and this is the first study in the world to carry out in-depth analysis of metastatic prostate cancers that are resistant to standard treatments.
The research is published in the journal Cell, and is funded by Stand up to Cancer and the Prostate Cancer Foundation.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @07:32AM
Years ago, when I listened to Dean Edell, MD on the radio, he mentioned several times that the percentage of men who die -with- prostate cancer is surprisingly high.
The percentage of men who die -OF- prostate cancer is very low.
It's not an especially aggressive ailment.
Many guys who have it don't even know they do.
...and your prostate isn't a critical organ.
Clearly, metastasis (spreading to other organs) is the greatest danger.
-- gewg_
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @09:04AM
Your boyfriend's prostate cancer can't spread to your penis, but his HIV can.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @03:16PM
Check for yourself....
A very quick Google search came up with 13% of all male cancer deaths are from Prostate cancer - hardly trivial
4% of all male deaths are due to Prostate Cancer
as a comparison, Breast cancer is responsible for 15% of all female cancer deaths.
As for metastasis - how the fuck do you think cancer kills?
That's the difference between a benign tumour and a malignant tumour.
references:
http://canceraustralia.gov.au/affected-cancer/cancer-types/prostate-cancer/prostate-cancer-statistics [canceraustralia.gov.au]
http://canceraustralia.gov.au/affected-cancer/cancer-types/breast-cancer/breast-cancer-statistics [canceraustralia.gov.au]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 26 2015, @04:08AM
I have two colleagues who got aggressive prostate cancer. One died from it pretty quickly (about a year after being diagnosed), and the other may have caught it in time before it spread throughout the rest of his body.