UK researchers usher in New Era for Prostate Cancer Trials

The vast majority of advanced prostate tumors contain genetic faults that make them sensitive to drugs already available or in development, according to a major study. Previous large-scale genetic studies of prostate cancer have tended to rely on tumor samples taken from men at earlier stages of the disease. The new study, a collaboration between researchers at eight centres across the US and the UK, took biopsy samples from 150 men who had previously had surgery to remove their prostate tumour, and hormone treatment, after which their disease had spread and become resistant. The tumor samples were taken from the men’s lymph nodes, bone, liver and other tissues.
Around 90 per cent of them were found to contain previously-known DNA errors, linked to sensitivity to existing or experimental drugs.
 About a quarter of the samples contained faults in genes like BRCA1, BRCA2 and ATM, which are involved in DNA repair. Faults in these genes are linked to sensitivity to drugs called PARP inhibitors, originally developed to treat breast and ovarian cancers but now being tested in prostate cancer.
“This study provides a strong argument that the genomics driving advanced prostate cancer is fundamentally different than primary prostate cancer”, said Dr Eliezer Van Allen, from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, one of the study’s lead authors.
Professor Johann de Bono, from The Institute of Cancer Research in London, where some of the work was carried out, said the findings were “hugely encouraging”.