Dr. Nima Sharifi

PSA Rising /DALLAS/ – July 25, 2011 – UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have narrowed the potential drug targets for advanced prostate cancer by demonstrating that late-stage tumors are driven by a different hormonal pathway than previously was thought.

“We have recently discovered that castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) is unexpectedly driven by dihydrotestosterone synthesis from adrenal precursors in a pathway that circumvents testosterone,” says Dr. Nima Sharifi, assistant professor of internal medicine and senior author of a  study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“The dominant pathway to DHT synthesis from adrenal precursors in CRPC [castration resistant prostate cancer] follows an alternative route that bypasses T and requires steroid 5α-reductase isoenzyme-1 (SRD5A1),” Dr. Sharifi writes.

February 7 2011, BUFFALO, NY — The nation’s first FDA-approved cancer treatment vaccine, Provenge (sipuleucel-T), is being offered for the first time in Western New York at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI). The vaccine is designed for men with advanced prostate cancer who have limited treatment options and who meet eligibility requirements.

In light of favorable results from the Phase 1-2 trial of MDV 3100 for advanced prostate cancer, a Phase 3 trial is enrolling at sites in the US, Canada, South America, UK, Europe, Australia, and South Africa. Results from the earlier trial are published online by the UK medical journal The Lancet.

Below are a graph and a table of the effect of Ferring’s degarelix on testosterone compared with the effect of Lupron. On December 24th Ferring announced that FDA has approved degarelix for the treatment of hormonally sensitive advanced prostate cancer.

Degarelix (generic name) is a GnRH receptor antagonist. The company says: “Degarelix achieves medical castration differently than LHRH agonists, specifically by binding reversibly to GnRH receptors on cells in the pituitary gland, quickly reducing the release of gonadotropins and consequently testosterone.” How quickly? Like this :

Degarelix versus Lupron Effect: Percent drop in Testosterone drop over 28 days

Ambrilia, a Montreal company, said today that results of a Phase I/II trial of PCK3145 in patients with metastatic prostate cancer show that the drug, a small molecule peptide, slows tumor doubling time..

Previously, detailed Phase I results were presented at ASCO and are online: Slovin, S., et al. Phase I trial results of PCK3145 in patients with castrate metastatic prostate cancer: the US experience. ASCO Prostate Cancer – San Francisco, California, U.S.A., February 2006.