If this is not your name, click here. Other Ophthalmic Surgery Organ Transplantation Orthopaedics Other Osteoarthritis Osteoporosis Otitis Otorhino. Praecis Pharmaceuticals Incorporated announced the results of two Phase III studies for its lead compound, abarelix depot-M, for the treatment of prostate cancer. Praecis is developing this product globally with its corporate collaborators. These two studies, which included 520 prostate cancer patients, showed the intended benefits of abarelix depot-M when compared head to head with leuprolide acetate depot or leuprolide acetate depot and bicalutamide, two drugs commonly used for treating prostate cancer.
Prostate cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in men.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 180,000 new diagnoses of, and 32,000 deaths from, prostate cancer will occur in the United States this year. Current prostate cancer therapies include surgery, radiation therapy, hormonal therapy or a combination of these. Shutting off the body's normal production of testosterone, therefore, is the primary goal of hormonal treatment. Available hormonal therapies may cause an initial surge or increase in the level of testosterone before the desired effect of lowering testosterone occurs. In the studies reported today, zero percent of the patients treated with abarelix depot-M experienced a testosterone surge compared to more than 80 percent of patients treated with leuprolide acetate depot, or a combination of leuprolide acetate depot plus bicalutamide.