[domwood]

As someone who's grandfather and grandmother both died of cancer-related complications (edit: in the last four months, my grandmother not even a week ago) and with a grandfather-in-law who has terminal cancer, for once I'm going to abandon cynicism, gloss over the lack of scientific details, and dare to hope.

[tsotha]

Don't go overboard. This drug works by suppressing the ability of cancer cells to produce testosterone, which prostate cancer cells need to grow. So it isn't effective against any other type of cancer.

Also, I would bet my last dollar the cancer will eventually find a way around it since cancer cells mutate like crazy. So it's probably a question of adding some time to the patient's life instead of curing or even controlling the disease. And there are side effects.

Don't get me wrong - if I have terminal prostate cancer I'm gonna pop these pills like candy. But it's only going to help men with aggressive prostate cancer that can't be cured with surgery because it's already metastasized.

[domwood]

No, it's no wonder drug, it's not a cure, it's a treatment. Yes, it probably will become redundant eventually, but as cancer's a genetic thing, it'll be on a patient by patient basis, that means even if a patient's cancer start to develop an immunity to the drug, it'll take a very long time for that immunity to be spread by reproduction, especially as people tend to get cancer after having children (it's far more common in later life after all, or don't have them after they are diagnosed. That means that it'll be useful for a long period of time for the majority of people. In the meantime, that gives science a chance to continue to develop the "next step", whatever that may be. And it's not the only drug of its kind, we've got to the point of being able to target individual cancers, so perhaps the research from this will have uses elsewhere.

P.S. I'm not going overboard, cancer has done a damned good job of rampaging through my family, so I think I'm excused a little drama ;)

[tsotha]

>Yes, it probably will become redundant eventually, but as cancer's a genetic thing, it'll be on a patient by patient basis, that means even if a patient's cancer start to develop an immunity to the drug, it'll take a very long time for that immunity to be spread by reproduction...

Eh? I guess "never" is a very long time. Prostate cancer isn't communicable, and while you may pass a propensity to get cancer to your offspring that's irrelevant to the treatment.

[adrianhoward]

But it's only going to help men with aggressive prostate cancer that can't be cured with surgery because it's already metastasized.

But since my Dad died of exactly that seven years ago, and there seems to be at least some genetic component to folk who get aggressive prostrate cancer, it's cheered me up quite a bit.

[tsotha]

I hope this drug ends up being extremely effective, but you're going to be much better served by getting your prostate checked every year plus keeping an eye on your PSA levels. Better to catch the monster early and cut it out before it spreads.

[adrianhoward]

Unfortunately PSA tests are pretty much debunked as a good diagnostic tool for -detecting prostrate cancer- [edit: what I should have written is "increasing survivability" - although the detection stats are also poor] (This NYT op-ed covers some of the high points http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/opinion/10Ablin.html). It's even more useless than normal for me since I'm overweight which tends to mask the hormone levels to some extent.

Even if you have an accurate diagnosis you're more than likely to die of something else since it's mostly very slow to grow and metastasise - and the risk of having it cut out quality-of-life wise are non-trivial.

I'm in my forties. The chances that I already have prostrate cancer are about 1/3. The chances that it'll kill me are only about 3/100. The odds that a PSA test will help me figure out the difference are in coin-toss territory. The vast majority of men with prostrate cancer will die of something else (with my weight there are a lot more likely options ;-)

What I'd really love is for researchers to figure out the genetic/environmental factors that make some prostrate cancers become extremely aggressive, metastasise and kill people in months. That would be trez useful. In the mean time having a much more effective treatment for that instance is just about the second best news I can think of.

[dhughes]

Sorry to hear about your family's health, it certainly is humbling as a human to hear that news.

My Mom was nearly diagnosed with lung cancer but it turned out to be scarring from pneumonia. My Dad may have lung cancer and does have IPF either of which will kill him in six month to a few years.

I don't think people realize that people who are critically ill don't care if it's "Big Pharma" or some weed from China, if it works they'll try it and hope it helps even to live a few more months.

[domwood]

Thanks, and the same to you, IPF isn't fun and neither is lung cancer.

That's one of the reasons something like this is important, it's a life extending drug that's from legitimate sources, which means it's thoroughly tested and isn't some weed from China. The extra time this will give to a lot of people shouldn't be overlooked.