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A breakthrough triple therapy for advanced prostate cancer can give patients years of healthier lives and reduce the overall risk of death by a third.
The regimen includes two standard therapies alongside a powerful new hormone drug, darolutamide.
The new drug has already proven effective as a stand-alone treatment in the early stages of the disease when given to men who no longer respond to other medications.
But a pivotal study has now shown that it has a dramatic effect when combined with standard therapies, even in patients whose cancer has spread throughout the body.
Although a cure is not possible for these men, the use of darolutamide, chemotherapy, and other hormonal drugs reduced pain, slowed disease progression, and prolonged survival.
The men in the study were mostly in their late 60s, although one patient was 89 years old.
The regimen includes two standard therapies alongside a powerful new hormone drug, darolutamide. (Image from a photo agency)
Those given the new combination therapy took four years before their cancer progressed, while those given just the standard treatments had their cancer worsen after just six months.
Professor Alison Birtle, consultant clinical oncologist at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, called the progress “exciting”.
She added: “We have never had the option of triple therapy like this before.
“This study provides a compelling argument for adding darolutamide to standard chemotherapy and hormonal treatment because it will help men with advanced prostate cancer live longer, healthier lives and with less pain.”
There are around 52,000 new cases of prostate cancer every year in the UK.
Men with early-stage disease are usually offered surgery to remove the prostate - and the tumor within it - in the hope of a cure.
If they refuse surgery, which men often undergo because the procedure can cause incontinence and erectile dysfunction, they are offered medication to limit the amount of the male hormone they produce, testosterone, which prostate cancer uses to grow.
In 15,000 men per year, the disease has already spread by the time they are diagnosed - and in many cases surgery is pointless.
Instead, chemotherapy, radiation therapy and hormonal drugs shrink tumors and keep the disease at bay for as long as possible.
But in incurable cases, most patients eventually become resistant to conventional hormonal medications.
At this stage, the cancer is difficult to control and men are unlikely to survive long.
While three-quarters of prostate cancer patients live 10 years or longer, the disease still kills 11,000 a year.
Darolutamide works by binding to tumor cells and preventing testosterone from reaching them.
In 2020, the drug was approved for NHS use after showing success in treating men with early-stage prostate cancer that was resistant to standard hormone medications.
But the new trial showed it is also having a remarkable impact on those once considered a lost cause.
A total of 1,306 patients with newly diagnosed prostate cancer were divided into two groups.
Both received the chemotherapy drug docetaxel and standard testosterone-limiting therapy, but one group also received darolutamide while the other received a placebo or dummy tablets.
They were then monitored for more than four years.
In the group that received darolutamide, the risk of death was reduced by 32 percent and progression-free survival - the time before the disease progresses again - was increased by 65 percent.
One patient who has benefited from the triplet treatment is father of three and grandfather of nine, Roger Downes, 78.
The retired airport worker from Essex was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer five years ago after being taken to A&E with groin pain and blood in his urine.
Scans showed the disease had already spread to his pelvis.
He had eight weeks of chemotherapy along with standard hormonal pills and darolutamide - and continued the pills after chemotherapy was finished.
He has been with them ever since.
He said: “The cancer has cleared from my pelvis and I have been told my PSA levels [a chemical released in high levels by the prostate when diagnosed] are normal.
“Now I wake up and think today is a good day again.
"I take two pills every morning and two before bed. I play bowling, walk a lot and feel healthy."