Two men are celebrating their lives after they were treated with a new radical drug which in essence, cured their inoperable prostate cancer.
Doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota in the US, where the men were being treated, were overwhelmed with the results.
The urologist heading the team that treated them, Dr Eugene Kwon said, “This is one of the Holy Grails of prostate cancer research. We have been looking for this for years.”
Rodger Nelson and Fructuoso Solano-Revuelta were diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer and went to the Mayo Clinic – an international renowned facility in search of treatment.
Both men were informed they had advanced stage inoperable prostate cancer, with a prognosis of only a few months to live and palliative care the only option. However, after just one dose of the wonder drug ipilimumab, a monoclonal antibody that stimulates the immune system, given with conventional hormone therapy, both men’s tumours dramatically shrunk in size before being surgically removed. They are now in full remission and have returned to their everyday lives.
The two men were part of a group of 108 patients undergoing a trial of the new drug. However, the pair were pulled from the trial after astounding results in order for them to undergo the necessary surgery.
Dr Kwon said yesterday, “Halfway through the trial we began seeing remarkable responses. Some patients had dramatic shrinkage of their tumours so practically all traces had disappeared. We had thought we might get some incremental delay in the progression of the cancer. It had not dawned on us that we might go from an inoperable tumour to an operable one. That just doesn’t happen.”
However, it was only after pressure from Carol Nelson – Mr Nelson’s wife and a former nurse – that the surgeons attempted to remove the tumours.
“The idea of surgery on an ‘inoperable’ tumour had not dawned on us. It is often disappointing and not advisable. But she is a tough lady – and having been a nurse she knew how to control the doctors. We said we didn’t think surgery would work, but we would try,” Dr Kwon said.
In fact, the effects of the drug were so dramatic, that Michael Bute – the operating surgeon – feared he was working on the wrong patient, “I was cutting away scar tissue trying to find cancer cells. The pathologist was checking samples as we proceeded and sent word back asking if we had the right patient. He had a hard time finding any cancer. I have never seen anything like this before. The pathologists were floored.”
Dr Kwon said, “These were patients for whom there was no hope. The course of their disease has been altered in a dramatic fashion. We have a major finding which we never expected to stumble across but we have to complete our studies.”
He added that further trials were required in order to finalise and confirm the research, before the study is published. A larger trial will begin in the autumn.
Professor Malcolm Mason, a Cancer Research UK prostate cancer specialist, said, “These case reports are extremely interesting and encouraging. Ipilimumab might potentially be a strong stimulator of the immune system, and it seems logical that it might also be effective in prostate cancer.
“But caution is needed, as earlier trials with this drug in other types of cancer were less successful than reported here, and its true value can only become clear through large-scale, randomised clinical trials, two of which are already under way. The other cautionary note is that both men received hormone therapy, which in some instances causes dramatic reductions in tumour size by itself.”
