Clipping of news on Brazilian Culture, Law and Citizenship
23/08/2013
This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.
transparent image
Now, patients with the disease will have another treatment option less aggressive before needing to undergo chemotherapy
Antibiotic Amoxil will be produced by Fiocruz laboratory in Rio de Janeiro
The National Agency for Sanitary Surveillance (ANVISA) last week approved a new indication for abiraterone, a drug against prostate cancer metastasis. From now on, this drug may be used in patients who failed to respond to conventional hormone therapy - which is based on oral medicine and is the first stage of treatment - and before starting chemotherapy. Thus, men who suffer with the disease will have another option to control cancer before they need to be subjected to chemotherapy, which is much more aggressive to trigger a range of adverse effects.
As explained José Augusto Rinck Junior, clinical oncologist at Hospital A. C. Camargo, initiation of treatment for metastatic prostate cancer is to reduce testosterone levels in the body of the patient, because the hormone is essential for tumors to grow and are able to proliferate. This is what makes the hormonal therapy that promotes healing but not controls the progression of the disease. "However, there comes a time when the individual becomes resistant to this treatment. And that's where we come with chemotherapy, "said the doctor to the site SEE. According to him, every patient with prostate cancer who enters metastasis need, at some point, chemotherapy.
The abiraterone, with the new indication for use, will operate as an additional step before the patient arrives to chemotherapy. According Rinck Junior, this drug also configures a hormonal therapy, but it is different from the conventional, rather than acting only in the production of testosterone in the testicles, also interferes with the production of the hormone by the adrenal gland and the tumor itself.
Applications - The abiraterone was approved in Brazil in November 2011. Until now, it was used in patients with metastatic prostate cancer who had stopped responding to hormonal therapy and a first phase of chemotherapy, explains José Augusto Junior Rinck, clinical oncologist at Hospital A. C. Camargo. "This product worked well for postponing the need for a step more aggressive chemotherapy that does not demonstrably greater patient survival. The doctors then thought, if it works so well after the first stage of chemotherapy, why not try using the drug before? "Said oncologist site to SEE.
The study which was based ANVISA to approve the use of abiraterone was done with 1,088 men with metastatic prostate cancer. They had stopped responding to standard hormone treatment, but had not undergone chemotherapy. According to the results, the drug could slow the progression of the disease and delay in about ten months of the initiation of chemotherapy. "It seems that the drug also increases the overall survival of patients, but this finding of the study is not yet implemented to affirm with certainty," says Junior Rinck.
"Unfortunately, this will not cure the patient, as it will still need some time of chemotherapy. However, it postpones the more aggressive treatment and its adverse effects and extends the time in which the patient is only oral medication can be taken at home, "the oncologist. "Even so, it is another tool to give the patient survival, even if your cancer has already become metastatic."
Source: See - Online
Our news are taken in full from our partner sites. For this reason, we can not change the contents of the same even in cases of typos.
This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.