PROSTATE CANCER WONDER PILL

REPORT FROM MAIL ONLINE:

British researchers have made a dramatic breakthrough against a lethal form of prostate cancer.

Trials of a new pill have shown that it can shrink tumors in up to 80 per cent of cases, and end the need for damaging chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Experts hailed the advance as potentially the biggest in the field of prostate cancer for decades, capable of saving many thousands of lives.

Scientists believe the technique could also be effective on other tumors, such as breast and bowel cancers.

The drug, abiraterone, was discovered by researchers at the Royal Marsden Hospital in South-West London.

Their leader, Dr Johann de Bono, said patients there had been able to control the disease with just four pills a day and very few side-effects. Its side-effects can include loss of libido, breathlessness, fatigue, fluid retention and weight gain. Some men may be left impotent, but the effects are far less than with chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

There are two types, aggressive and non-aggressive, which are often called 'tiger' and 'pussycat'. Men with pussycat cancer can often lead a healthy life, but the tiger variety - a third of cases - is usually fatal within 18 months.

Abiraterone is now being used in a 1,200-patient international study, including at ten sites across the UK. If it is licensed as expected in 2011, it will have to await approval by the rationing watchdog NICE before it is made freely available.