New Treatment Heading To Clinical Trials

GeneRose1

Warriors, News from the Prostate Cancer Foundation:

https://prostatecancernewstoday.com/2017/06/30/galeterone-shows-promise-as-a-next-generation-prostate-cancer-drugs/?utm_source=Prostate+Cancer&utm_campaign=9ecc05196a-RSS_MONDAY_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_a6d9c27ca8-9ecc05196a-72180173

VascodaGama

Killing two birds with one stone but not their "raison d’être"

Gene

This news on a newer ADT drug is great as it increases the number of weaponry to fight the bandit. Galeterone seams to kill two birds with one stone. According to the article it acts at the same time as an antiandrogen (similar to Casodex, Xtandi, etc) plus a CYP17A1 inhibitor (similar to Ketokonazole, Zytiga, etc). I would call it a drug with the capabilities of ADT2. Two blockades for avoiding the cancer from getting their sweet testo-cocktails (the testosterone).
In any case, I wonder how substantially better are its effects on the therapy, when comparing with the already established similar drugs, as well as its benefits in terms of lowering the side effects.

I do not know the details about this drug but, sincerely, this seems to be another equal type of drug with a similar approach to treat PCa, therefore, doomed to fail at some time latter. I would rather wish that researchers use their resources to find treatments that address the cancer itself; something that repairs/modifies the cells behavior, turning them from malignus into benignus, or kill them on the spot. I see genetics as the proper way to recognize the cancer, identify its origins/causes and provide the hot spots that must be addressed by a treatment. Those are the ones that can guide researchers into finding the right treatment or simply serve as the target where to aim the missiles for a kill, similarly to the PSMA which serves as a hot spot in PCa cells used at present in image studies and treatments. Radiation and chemo are so far the known basis that provide assurances for eliminating a cell(s), attacking these at their heart. The success for such treatment depends on the way one delivers such radio/chemo that would reach only the due cells without interfering with the neighbors (the benign ones).

One should have in mind that our building blocks, the cells, are prepared to resist forced death. They have the switches for survival and will try all means to be alive. This behavior is behind the refractory of therapies that try to interfere with our genes' principles. Curing a cell is not killing it. It is turning its behavior into the natural way of its existence. It is its raison d’être.

Thanks for the link,

VGama

GeneRose1

Building Blocks

Vasco, I view these as building blocks with each one doing a better job of keeping the cancer under control & extending survival. Lets see how it works in the trials and if the effectiveness can be increased by combining it with other drugs. Eventually I believe we're going to arrive at a cocktail approach, like the treatment of AIDS/HIV, in which a combination of drugs can be used to keep the bandit under contol indefinitely.