Cork hospital included in cancer drug trial

Patients who take part in a prostate cancer clinical trial at Cork University Hospital will have free access to a drug that normally costs over €3,500 for a month’s supply.

Consultant radiation oncologist Dr Paul Kelly, who is based at CUH, said the drug that random patients will have access to in the trial — Enzalutamide (brand name Xtandi) — does not have chemotherapy side- effects and is available in tablet form, so patients can take it home.

Dr Kelly said CUH was delighted to take part in the international trial given the high incidence of high-grade prostate cancers in Cork. Figures from the National Cancer Registry show the incidence of prostate cancer was significantly higher in Cork than most of the rest of the country in the period 1994-2012.

The average number of cases observed in Cork per year during that timeframe was 284, almost 30 more than the 255 expected to occur, based on incidence rates, for Ireland overall.

Dr Kelly said Cork was “quite an incidence hot spot” for prostate cancer, borne out by both the NCR figures and their own experience at CUH where the number of prostate cancer cases coming before the multidisciplinary team “is really quite excessive”.

Dr Kelly said they were hopeful the drug on offer via the clinical trial “will help us cure more patients” with aggressive prostate cancer.

“As a clinician it is important to be able to offer patients what you believe is the best treatment available. Patients who participate in clinical trials receive the highest standards of care and, from a national standpoint, result in significant cost savings as expensive novel treatments are provided free of charge,” Dr Kelly said.

The trial is open to men with localised prostate cancer at high risk for recurrence (following radiation and standard hormonal therapy) and who are deemed suitable for external beam therapy.

Participating patients will be randomly assigned to receive Enzalutamide, a new tablet form of hormonal therapy, in addition to external radiation therapy and injection forms of hormonal therapy. Other patients on the trial will receive the latter two treatments, but not the tablet.

In recent clinical trials, Enzalutamide has proven successful in prolonging survival rates and delaying the time for chemotherapy in men with advanced tumours.

CUH is the first site in Europe to open the international trial and has already recruited one patient out of five screened for eligibility. The hospital anticipates recruiting one candidate a month over the next year.

Up to 800 people will take part in the trial in centres across the globe, including at Dublin and Galway. The oncology clinical trials umbrella group ICORG will oversee the study in all participating European countries.

High-risk prostate cancer can affect any adult male but is most frequent as age increases.

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