Prostate Cancer: Clinical Study Shows Superior Efficacy of Docetaxel Chemotherapy

2007/05/23 14:17

Press Release from:

Medical University Vienna

The chemotherapy drug docetaxel currently offers the best treatment for androgen-independent prostate cancer. That is the result of a now published clinical trial that compared the efficacy of the two most widely used chemotherapy drugs. When using docetaxel, the risk of disease progression was cut by more than 50% than when using the next-best chemotherapy drug. The use of chemotherapy to treat prostate cancer has rapidly grown in importance over recent years, with several comprehensive clinical trials helping to drive forward progress. In two of these trials, the chemotherapy drug docetaxel

Prostate Cancer: Clinical Study Shows Superior Efficacy of Docetaxel Chemotherapy

offered patients a significantly improved prognosis. However, other clinical trials indicated that the drug vinorelbine, which like docetaxel acts on cellular microtubuli, also produces impressive results and it is often used as an alternative to docetaxel.

The Medical University of Vienna has now carried out the world’s first direct comparison of both drugs, giving doctors valuable support in choosing the appropriate treatment for their patients.
Original publication: A Prospective, Open Label, Randomized Phase II Trial of Weekly Docetaxel Versus Weekly Vinorelbine as First Line Chemotherapy in Patients with Androgen Independent Prostate Cancer. J. Urol., DOI:10-1016/j.juro.2007.01.148 Scientific contact: Prof. Michael Krainer, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria, T +43 / 664 / 183 76 77, michael.krainer@meduniwien.ac.at