PCF Therapeutic Consortium Helps Accelerate Abiraterone Trials

Abiraterone, a promising experimental medication with the potential to treat patients who have failed conventional medical treatment for advanced prostate cancer, including chemotherapy, has recently attracted global media coverage. The attention was sparked by a scientific paper titled Phase I Clinical Trial of a Selective Inhibitor of CYP17, Abiraterone Acetate, Confirms That Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer Commonly Remains Hormone Driven, written by Dr. Johann de Bono and colleagues at The Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden Hospital, that was published online by the Journal of Clinical Oncology on July 21, 2008.

Phase II clinical trials led by Dr de Bono and his London-based team have already been completed and the results will be published shortly.

The PCF Therapeutic Clinical Investigation Consortium played an important role by accelerating US clinical testing of this new agent in Phase II clinical trials. These evaluations focused on the drug's anti-tumor action and were conducted in 132 patients at five leading prostate cancer centers that are all members of the PCF consortium: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical Center, Johns Hopkins Cancer Center, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and the University of California at San Francisco.

In Phase I studies, it exhibited the potential to attenuate disease progression and shrink tumors.

Abiraterone is an orally-administered drug that works by blocking the pathways that drive the development and progression of aggressive prostate cancer. Specifically, it blocks the production of androgenic (male) hormones that contribute to the continued growth of prostate cancer after conventional hormones are no longer effective. The drug blocks the continued production of males hormones that are made by the tumor itself and in other parts of the body. In the late 1990s, PCF-funded discovery science identified the active pathway that Abiraterone addresses.

The medication was developed at The Institute of Cancer Research in London by a team headed by Professor Mike Jarman and tested by Dr. Johann de Bono in males with progressing prostate cancers at The Royal Marsden Hospital. (Click here to watch Dr. Johann de Bono's presentation about Abiraterone at the 2007 PCF Scientific Retreat.) It is being developed by Cougar Biotechnology.

Dr. Howard I. Scher is the chief of Genitourinary Oncology Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, the leader of the PCF Therapeutic Clinical Investigation Consortium, and principal investigator of one of the phase II trials.

"Abiraterone is certainly a promising new drug that merits definitive testing in large scale Phase III trials," commented Dr. Scher. "The current attention focused on Abiraterone should deliver important support to accelerate the recruitment of patients to these trials, so that the efficacy and safety can be determined to better understand the drug's role in the management of this disease."

The PCF supports its Therapeutic Consortium for "first in man" clinical trials with an annual funding of $3.2 million at eight prostate cancer centers across the U.S.