PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Abiraterone acetate delays quality of life decline in men with metastatic prostate cancer

2013-09-25
(Press-News.org) CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Abiraterone acetate, a recently FDA-approved drug used to treat men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, significantly delays progression of pain and quality of life deterioration when taken in conjunction with prednisone.

The study, published Sept. 24 in Lancet Oncology, was led by Ethan Basch, MD, director of the Cancer Outcomes Research Program at the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Researchers measured the pain and quality of life impact of abiraterone acetate, an orally prescribed treatment marketed under the trade name Zytiga, when administered to 1,088 patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer at 151 sites in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Australia. The randomized trial enrolled patients who had experienced little or no pain at the outset, prescribing abiraterone acetate and prednisone to 546 of the enrollees and placebo plus prednisone to the remainder.

"The majority of men with metastatic prostate cancer experience pain that is often debilitating and can have a profound impact on their ability to function, sleep, work, and their enjoyment of life. Pain is a central problem in prostate cancer and managing pain remains a major challenge," said Dr. Basch.

The design of the study emphasized the importance of patient reported-outcomes in evaluating new treatments. In previous publications, Dr. Basch has shown the importance of evaluating how treatments impact how people feel and function during drug development.

"Patients with cancer experience many symptoms related to their disease and to drug side effects, but this information is generally neither measured rigorously in clinical trials nor included in U.S. drug labels. As a result, patients often have incomplete information about how they may expect to feel with a new therapy. This study addresses this information gap towards better-informed decisions," said Dr. Basch.

Abiraterone acetate was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2011. The drug, which was found to increase survival in patients by an average of four months, is in routine clinical use in the United States and Europe.

The study tracked the progression of pain intensity, the time until patients needed opiates to control pain, and patients' quality of life using validated questionnaires. Patients reported their pain intensity on a scale of one to 10 as well as the amount that pain interfered with their sleep, mood and ability to conduct daily activities via the Brief Pain Inventory.

The combination of abiraterone acetate and prednisone significantly prolonged the time until clinically meaningful worsening of pain intensity as well as quality of life deterioration compared to patients receiving the placebo and prednisone. Patients reported a more than eight-month delay in progression of pain, and a more than four-month delay in quality of life deterioration. Significant improvements were also seen in how pain interferes with daily activities, and time until opiate use.

Pain is a significant predictor of overall survival, and the ability to delay suffering represents a meaningful clinical benefit to patients, according to Dr. Basch. The delay of pain also allows patients to forgo the use of opiates and other pain medications for longer periods, a benefit since those medications also cause negative side effects that deteriorate quality of life.

"The design of this study provides a path forward for future research to utilize patient-centered endpoints," said Dr. Basch. "Not only does it provide essential information about the properties of abiraterone acetate, but it demonstrates the feasibility of rigorously measuring symptoms in a large multi-national study. It also helps identify areas of needed future methodological research."



INFORMATION:



Dr. Basch and UNC received no financial support for the study. Employees of Janssen Research & Development participated in trial design, data monitoring and collection, data analysis, data interpretation, and writing of the report.

One of only 41 NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers, the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center brings together some of the most exceptional physicians and scientists in the country to investigate and improve the prevention, early detection and treatment of cancer. With research that spans the spectrum from the laboratory to the bedside to the community, UNC Lineberger faculty work to understand the causes of cancer at the genetic and environmental levels, to conduct groundbreaking laboratory research, and to translate findings into pioneering and innovative clinical trials.

For more information, please visit http://www.unclineberger.org



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

How the gut got its villi

2013-09-25
"You are not just a ball of cells," says Clifford Tabin, George Jacob and Jacqueline Hazel Leder Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School (HMS). The way cells organize within the human body allows us all to function the way we do, but a couple of Harvard professors are concerned as much with that developmental process as with the end result. Tabin shares a common perspective with L. Mahadevan, the Lola England de Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), professor of organismic and evolutionary biology, ...

Scientists push closer to understanding mystery of deep earthquakes

2013-09-24
LEMONT, Ill. – Scientists broke new ground in the study of deep earthquakes, a poorly understood phenomenon that occurs where the oceanic lithosphere, driven by tectonics, plunges under continental plates – examples are off the coasts of the western United States, Russia and Japan. This research is a large step toward replicating the full power of these earthquakes to learn what sets them off and how they unleash their violence. It was made possible only by the construction of a one-of-a-kind X-ray facility that can replicate high-pressure and high-temperature while allowing ...

Early imaging, diagnosis of Alzheimer's leads to changes in patient care, better outcomes

2013-09-24
Patients suffering from early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease who were diagnosed sooner than usual using a brain imaging test received Alzheimer-specific medications earlier than those who did not have the brain imaging results available to their doctors or themselves. These patients also had significantly better clinical outcomes during the subsequent years they were clinically monitored, UCLA researchers have found for the first time. The Metabolic Cerebral Imaging in Incipient Dementia study is an ongoing national clinical trial sponsored by the Centers for Medicare ...

UT Arlington researchers successfully test model for implant device reactions

2013-09-24
A team from The University of Texas at Arlington has used mathematical modeling to develop a computer simulation they hope will one day improve the treatment of dangerous reactions to medical implants such as stents, catheters and artificial joints. The work resulted from a National Institutes of Health-funded collaboration by research groups headed by Liping Tang, professor of bioengineering in the UT Arlington College of Engineering, and Jianzhong Su, chairman and professor in the UT Arlington College of Science's mathematics department. Results from their computational ...

Economic rewards of better land management: Estimated 2.3 billion tons of crops worth $1.4 trillion

2013-09-24
Adopting proven sustainable land management practices could raise world crop supplies by an estimated 2.3 billion tonnes, worth $1.4 trillion, experts say in a study being released at a major global desertification conference. Conducted by the international Economics of Land Degradation initiative, the scientific interim report says land's economic value "is chronically undervalued and commonly determined by immediate agricultural or forestry market values." "This focus on short-term gain motivates the highest extraction rates possible from land, leading to unsustainable ...

JCI early table of contents for Sept. 24, 2013

2013-09-24
Hereditary spastic paraplegia development associated with changes in endoplasmic reticulum Hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSP) are a group of hereditary diseases that result in progressive loss of motor function in the lower limbs, and mutations in many different genes have been implicated in disease progression. One common feature of HSP is the progressive degradation of the axons of cortical motor neurons; however, it is not fully understood how mutations in is so many different genes result in axonal degradation. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, ...

Hereditary spastic paraplegia development associated with changes in endoplasmic reticulum

2013-09-24
Hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSP) are a group of hereditary diseases that result in progressive loss of motor function in the lower limbs, and mutations in many different genes have been implicated in disease progression. One common feature of HSP is the progressive degradation of the axons of cortical motor neurons; however, it is not fully understood how mutations in is so many different genes result in axonal degradation. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Christian Hübner and colleagues at Jena University develop a mouse model of HSP by introducing ...

Maintaining fluid and electrolyte balance in the kidney

2013-09-24
Distal renal tubular acidosis (dRTA) develops in response to the loss of acid secretion by α-intercalated cells in the kidney. The inability to remove acid from the body results in low blood potassium levels (hypokalemia), dehydration, and excess calcium in the urine (hypercalcemia), which leads to urinary stone formation. Recently, patients with dRTA have been identified with genetic mutations that lead to the inactivation of proton pumps found in β-intercalated cells, which have been thought to be responsible for base-secretion in the kidney. In this issue ...

Development of autoimmunity in patients with common variable immune deficiency

2013-09-24
Common variable immune deficiency (CVID) is a genetic disease associated with enhanced susceptibility to infection, autoimmunity, and decreased antibody production. Mutations in the tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily member TACI, are associated with CVID and autoimmunity development. Interestingly, autoimmunity develops in CVID patients with only one mutated copy of TACI, and CVID patients with two mutated TACI alleles do not develop autoimmunity. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Eric Meffre and colleagues at Yale University evaluated B ...

A link between zinc transport and diabetes

2013-09-24
Individuals with a mutation in the gene encoding a zinc transporter, SLC30A8 have an elevated risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Insulin granules that are released from pancreatic β cells contain high levels of zinc; however, it is not clear why individuals with mutations in the SLC30A8 zinc transporter gene are predisposed to type 2 diabetes. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Yoshio Fujitani and colleagues at Juntendo University investigated the role of zinc transport by SLC30A8 in β cells. They found that this zinc transporter is required ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Are lifetimes of big appliances really shrinking?

Pink skies

Monkeys are world’s best yodellers - new research

Key differences between visual- and memory-led Alzheimer’s discovered

% weight loss targets in obesity management – is this the wrong objective?

An app can change how you see yourself at work

NYC speed cameras take six months to change driver behavior, effects vary by neighborhood, new study reveals

New research shows that propaganda is on the rise in China

Even the richest Americans face shorter lifespans than their European counterparts, study finds

Novel genes linked to rare childhood diarrhea

New computer model reveals how Bronze Age Scandinavians could have crossed the sea

Novel point-of-care technology delivers accurate HIV results in minutes

Researchers reveal key brain differences to explain why Ritalin helps improve focus in some more than others

Study finds nearly five-fold increase in hospitalizations for common cause of stroke

Study reveals how alcohol abuse damages cognition

Medicinal cannabis is linked to long-term benefits in health-related quality of life

Microplastics detected in cat placentas and fetuses during early pregnancy

Ancient amphibians as big as alligators died in mass mortality event in Triassic Wyoming

Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly

Alcohol makes male flies sexy

TB patients globally often incur "catastrophic costs" of up to $11,329 USD, despite many countries offering free treatment, with predominant drivers of cost being hospitalization and loss of income

Study links teen girls’ screen time to sleep disruptions and depression

Scientists unveil starfish-inspired wearable tech for heart monitoring

Footprints reveal prehistoric Scottish lagoons were stomping grounds for giant Jurassic dinosaurs

AI effectively predicts dementia risk in American Indian/Alaska Native elders

First guideline on newborn screening for cystic fibrosis calls for changes in practice to improve outcomes

Existing international law can help secure peace and security in outer space, study shows

Pinning down the process of West Nile virus transmission

UTA-backed research tackles health challenges across ages

In pancreatic cancer, a race against time

[Press-News.org] Abiraterone acetate delays quality of life decline in men with metastatic prostate cancer