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, Interesting) by kaszz on Sunday May 24 2015, @01:14AM
Any qualified guesses as to when this will translate into actual treatment? Some patients life may depend on this so time is of the essence.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @01:43AM
Don't worry. You'll die before your insurance pays for your treatment.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday May 24 2015, @01:49AM
Don't worry, not all countries have a fucked up health care (care?) system.. :P
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @01:51AM
Not everybody has a prostate, either.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @02:19AM
Female prostate [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @03:55PM
This may be a novel idea to you, but if you are not interested in the conversation, then how about not sticking your goddamn nose into it? There is no much point in entering a discussion just to declare your indifference. Despite what you might have come to believe, the world doesn't need your opinion on every single topic.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @12:38PM
There is a world outside of the US, you know. The US "healthcare system" may be made up entirely by greedy death panels, but in the rest of the world they actually care about human life more than the almighty dollar.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 26 2015, @04:04AM
Yes, greed stops at the US borders. It's a fucking paradise everywhere else.
Boy you are a twit.
(Score: 3, Informative) by opinionated_science on Sunday May 24 2015, @02:09AM
there have been some treatments available for sometime, thought not widespread. This offers possible opportunity to have a more specific test than the PSA, which is prone to false +ves.
(Score: 2) by morgauxo on Sunday May 24 2015, @03:13AM
But it's not ethical to hurry something to treatment. Someone might die from it.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:49AM
Considering that people may die from the disease and lack of treatment. Sometimes one doesn't have a choice.
(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.
(Score: 2) by morgauxo on Tuesday June 02 2015, @08:22PM
Yah, I was kind of trying to bait for that response. I don't get the reluctance to try something that is not 100% sure to work on someone who is 100% sure to die without it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @01:53AM
When the summary says "lethal prostate cancers that have spread around the body" does it mean that the cancers spread from the prostate to the scrotum and testes?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:04AM
Given time many cancers can be carried by the blood to other organs, which they then spread into. You can have a kidney originated cancer in your lung, or vice versa. In general, once the cancer has spread to multiple organs the death rate rapidly increases.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @02:17AM
This cancer is really easy to beat anyways, because it's already lying down.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @04:00AM
Because the title says "prostrate", thus the "already lying down" joke, see.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @04:24AM
Not "Prostrate"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @05:07AM
Butt spill Czech sad its prostrate.
(Score: 3, Funny) by jasassin on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:52AM
I tried it myself and the results were amazing! Within a month I was speaking fluently with my prostate cancer.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @09:15AM
If you look at supplementary table 3 it has a list of all the gene mutations. This list includes the "genes": "3/1/2015", "9/11/2015", and "9/12/2015".
I'd send it back until they figure out how that happened.