Archives Curator

• Two new treatments were found to delay the spread of prostate cancer in men
• Each drug gave men more than two additional years before the disease moved into their bones and other organs, extending their lives
• Until now, there has been little doctors could do for patients who have been treated for the original cancer and are waiting to see if it will spread 

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Black men have a higher risk of developing prostate cancer, but they are often excluded from clinical trials for the disease, new research claims.

Researchers found many African American men are shut out of these experiments because they have slightly low levels of neutrophils, a common type of white blood cell important to fighting off infections. Exclusion from these clinical trials – which give participants access to the latest medical treatments – could prevent black men from receiving proper treatment. The findings, published in JAMA Oncology, suggest researchers designing clinical trials set entry criteria that makes it harder for black patients to participate. Read more

• Prostate cancer care is set to be transformed by the use of the first personalised medicine to tackle disease
• British scientists are leading a global trial of a daily pill that uses a man’s genetic make-up to undermine a tumour’s defences
• Early results suggest a third of victims of advanced prostate cancer could benefit from the new class of drugs called PARP-inhibitors 

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The number of men dying from prostate cancer has overtaken female deaths from breast cancer for the first time in the UK, figures show.

An ageing population means more men are developing and dying from the disease. Prostate Cancer UK says advances in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer are paying off, and increased funding could benefit prostate cancer. The biggest cancer killers in the UK remain lung and bowel cancer, with prostate now in third place. The latest figures from 2015 show there were 11,819 deaths from prostate cancer compared with 11,442 from breast cancer. Read more

For those of us who work with patients and families affected by prostate cancer, it sadly comes as no surprise that this disease is now the third biggest cancer killer in the UK. We have seen prostate cancer death rates rising year on year, from around 3,500 in the mid-1960s to more than 11,800 currently – and now overtaking deaths from breast cancer for the first time. It is a shocking and ghastly statistic. Each and every one of those deaths is important. They are more than just a contribution to national statistics; they represent the suffering of individuals and their loved ones, and they remind us all, doctors, scientists and policy makers, that we must do more on all fronts to combat the scourge of this disease. Read more