Food and Drug Administration officials have approved a new drug for patients battling the later stages of prostate cancer.
The drug, Xtandi, is expected to help men who have had recurrences of the disease, shown resistance to other therapies, or shown no improvement even after surgery to reduce testosterone.
“The need for additional treatment options for advanced prostate cancer continues to be important for patients,” Dr. Richard Pazdur, director of the Office of Hematology and Oncology Products in FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement. “Xtandi is the latest treatment for this disease to demonstrate its ability to extend a patient’s life.”
Trials of the drug studied 1,999 men and found that patients taking Xtandi lived an estimated 4.8 months longer than those taking a placebo.
According to the Center for Disease Control, after non-melanoma skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer among American men.
The latest data, released by the CDC in 2008, found that of the 214,633 men diagnosed with prostate cancer, 28,471 of them died.
African-American males are diagnosed with and die from the disease at higher rates than other groups.
Prostate cancer is the uncontrollable growth of abnormal cells in the male reproductive system. The disease can affect any part of that system which includes the prostate, found underneath the bladder and in front of the rectum, according to the CDC.
The prostate surrounds the urethra, and is a walnut-size part of the reproductive system that is responsible for creating part of fluid that is released as semen.
Older men are most likely to develop prostate cancer, as the prostate gradually increases in size with age. Family history and race are also factors.
