Astellas Pharma has announced the availability of Xtandi (enzalutamide), a new treatment for advanced prostate cancer in patients who have failed on first-line hormonal treatments and docetaxel chemotherapy, in the UK.
Administered without the need for routine product-specific monitoring, Enzalutamide works at three steps in the androgen receptor (AR) signalling pathway within the cancer cells terminating the cancer growth.
Cancer cell growth was shown to be decreased in advanced prostate cancer by enzalutamide with the ability to cause cancer cell death.
The approval of the once-daily, oral medication in the UK was supported by pivotal trial data that showed a 37% reduction of the risk of death against placebo for patients taking enzalutamide. It was was well tolerated in the AFFIRM study.
The AFFIRM trial global chief investigator, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust consultant medical oncologist and The Institute of Cancer Research experimental cancer medicine professor Johann de Bono said, "Enzalutamide is a much needed development in prostate cancer treatment.
It will provide a new option for the increasing number of men with advanced prostate cancer in the UK, whose disease has become resistant to first-line hormonal treatments and who have had docetaxel chemotherapy, de Bono added.