For Immediate Release
February 14, 2005

Roswell Park To Study New Treatment for Advanced Prostate Cancer

BUFFALO, NY – Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) is offering a new treatment to patients who have advanced prostate cancer to produce remission in patients with recurring cancer. James L. Mohler, MD, Chair, Department of Urologic Oncology, RPCI, is the principal investigator of the study.

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in American men and approximately 15 percent of men will have advanced disease at the time of diagnosis.  Another 15 percent of men will undergo curative treatments that unfortuantely fail.  Most of these men will undergo hormone therapy that usually produces remission. Unfortunately, prostate cancer eventually returns and is usually fatal.

Research at RPCI and elsewhere indicates that recurrent prostate cancer has high levels of the male hormone testosterone despite treatments designed to eliminate testosterone from the blood. Testosterone feeds the cancer and is converted to a stronger form, dihydrotestosterone (DHT), by the enyme 5-alpha-reductase.

Drugs have been developed that block 5-alpha-reductase. Finasteride (Proscar), for example, is prescribed often for enlarged prostate, but has proven unsuccessful against prostate cancer.  Dr. Mohler’s laboratory has shown that finasteride blocks one form of 5-alpha-reductase that produces DHT, but not the form responsible for recurrent cancer. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Dutasteride – a relative of finasteride – for the treatment of enlarged prostate. Dutasteride blocks both forms of the enzyme 5-alpha-reductase, and may prove useful for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer.

RPCI plans to recruit 24 patients who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer that has returned in spite of hormone therapy to determine whether Dutasteride will cause prostate cancer to go into a second remission.

Participants will be asked to take 3.5 milligrams of Dutasteride by mouth daily, undergo a physical exam, laboratory tests, and x-ray studies, and will be followed for up to four years.
“Novel therapies that target both forms of 5-alpha-reductase, and prevent the formation of DHT within prostate cancer tissue, may offer a new approach to reinduce remission for patients suffering from recurrent prostate cancer,” said Dr. Mohler.

Roswell Park Cancer Institute, founded in 1898, is the nation’s first cancer research, treatment and education center and is the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in Upstate New York. RPCI is a member of the prestigious National Comprehensive Cancer Network, an alliance of the nation’s leading cancer centers. For more information, visit RPCI’s website at www.roswellpark.org, call 1-877-ASK-RPCI (1-877-275-7724) or e-mail askrpci@roswellpark.org.  

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