Blood vessel-blocking drug may delay prostate cancer progression

Washington, June 9 (ANI): In a clinical trial of 200 prostate cancer patients, a blood vessel-blocking drug called tasquinimod slowed the rate of disease progression, say experts at Johns Hopkins, Roswell Park Cancer Institute and Duke University.

Tasquinimod is a so-called "anti-angiogenesis" drug that squeezes off blood supply to prostate tumors by blocking new blood vessel development. Tumors require these vast networks of blood vessels to supply nutrients.

The multicenter trial at seven institutions, including Johns Hopkins, enrolled prostate cancer patients whose disease had spread to take a once-daily pill for four weeks.

At six months, 57 percent of men taking tasquinimod had no disease progression as compared with 33 percent taking a placebo.

Overall, the drug added approximately 12 weeks of time that the disease did not worsen (progression-free survival).

The most common side effects included gastrointestinal problems, fatigue and bone pain, and some rare occurrences of heart attack, stroke and deep vein thrombosis.

"Given these results, we feel it is reasonable to move forward with Phase III studies. After exploring the drug as a single agent, we may study it in combination approaches with other prostate cancer drugs," said Michael Carducci, professor at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, who will lead the next phase of an international study of the drug.

The work was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), June 4-8, in Chicago. (ANI)