Bayer drug shows promise in treating advanced prostate cancer

[Guest guest]

This article from yesterday's Wall Street Journal may be of interest to some of

you.

I'm due for proton radiation treatment no. 25 of 45 today at Loma

University Medical Center in California and it's going very well--no significant

side effects, no pain, and no discomfort.

--Milt Baker, diagnosed Jan. 31, 2011

Bayer Drug Shows Promise in Treating Prostate Cancer

By RON WINSLOW And JONATHAN D. ROCKOFF

Bayer AG said positive results for an experimental prostate-cancer drug could

speed the drug's path to approval in an increasingly crowded market.

Bayer's Alpharadin, which emits alpha radiation, would be the fourth new drug

since early last year to reach the market for advanced prostate cancer, a lethal

condition for which few effective treatments previously existed.

Wall Street expects the world-wide market for prostate-cancer therapies, now

estimated to approach $1 billion, to grow to $5 billion by 2015 as a result of

the influx of new treatments, according to Morningstar Inc. Those already

available are Dendreon Corp.'s Provenge, Jevtana from Sanofi SA and &

's Zytiga.

" We're just seeing a tremendous amount of new treatments coming out, " said

Damien Conover, a Morningstar pharmaceuticals analyst.

While some competition for the market is likely, prostate-cancer experts said

each of the agents works differently against the disease, suggesting that they

may be used either sequentially or in combination to mount the most effective

assault on the disease.

Alpharadin, or radium-223 chloride, specifically targets cancer that has spread

to the bone. Bayer said the injectable drug was being studied in a 922-patient

randomized study. A planned interim safety check found that the study had

achieved its goal of showing an improvement in overall survival. The study was

halted so that patients in the study who were assigned to placebo could be

switched over to the treatment.

The analysis showed median survival was 14 months for those on Alpharadin,

compared with 11.2 months for those on placebo, according to Bayer. Both groups

also were given standard chemotherapy. Complete data from the study will be

presented at an upcoming scientific meeting, the company said.

" The results are modest, " said Philip Kantoff, director of the genitourinary

oncology program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, who wasn't involved

with the study. " But from a paradigm standpoint, this is interesting. "

Alpha radiation is a potent form of radiation that travels short distances and

in particular targets cancer at bone sites, Dr. Kantoff said. The study supports

the idea that a survival benefit can be achieved by attacking cancer that has

spread to the bone. These bone metastases are the main cause of painful symptoms

and death among patients with advanced prostate cancer whose disease has

progressed despite standard hormonal treatments.

Zytiga and Jevtana also work, in part, by targeting prostate cancer that has

spread to the bone, but by different mechanisms, and are approved for patients

after chemotherapy has failed to control their disease. Provenge works by

boosting the immune system and is approved for patients before they are treated

with chemotherapy.

Each of the drugs is " pegged at different time points along the cascade " of

prostate cancer's progression, said Yee, biotech analyst at RBC Capital

Markets. " The patient wins here because there are so many new options

available. "

Other options are in the wings. Medivation Inc. has a drug in late-stage

development.

And on Monday, Exelixis Inc. reported promising results from a midstage, or

Phase II, study of its drug cabozantinib, in advanced prostate cancer. The news,

reported at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in

Chicago, was offset by a report of six deaths related to the drug from a

separate trial.

sey, president and chief executive officer of Exelixis, said the

deaths, involving 1.2% of patients, " were completely in line " with findings of

other similar drugs that are already on the market for other cancers. The

company plans to launch a late-stage study of cabozantinib in prostate cancer in

the second half of this year.

†" Sten Stovall and Harriet Torry contributed to this article.

Write to Ron Winslow at Ron.Winslow@... and D. Rockoff at

.Rockoff@...