New Drugs For The Fight Against Prostate Cancer

One in four men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer in Singapore is in stage 4 of the disease, where the cancer has spread to other parts of the body such as the lymph nodes or bones. The worrying truth is that only one in ten of this group will live for at least five years after they have been diagnosed. But doctors are confident things will improve thanks to two new drugs that give these patients a much better chance of living longer.

Prostate cancer is the third most common cancer among men in Singapore, after colon and lung cancer. In fact more than 500 men are diagnosed every year. It is a growth of the glandular cells of the prostate, which are located below the bladder and in front of the rectum. It claims more than 100 lives a year in Singapore

The two new drugs, which were recently approved by the Health Sciences Authority (HSA), are now routinely used in clinical practice. They have been shown in studies to prolong patients’ survival by between two and four months when compared with the drugs that were previously used.

The drugs are: the once-a-day, oral pill called abiraterone acetate and the chemotherapy infusion drug cabazitaxel.  Both drugs are prescribed when the prostate cancer no longer responds to conventional treatment such as chemotherapy and hormonal therapy and patients are faced with few other options.

Checks showed the two cancer centres in the country – the National University Cancer Institute, Singapore and the National Cancer Centre Singapore – as well as a number of private clinics have placed more than 50 patients on these new drugs. The last drug for prostate cancer patients which prolonged life was rolled out more than five years ago.