Quickly identifying which treatments work best

Grant information

Institution – University College London
Researchers – Professor Jayne Tierney
Grant award - £465,180
Duration of funding – 2018-2024
Status - Complete
Reference – RIA16-ST2-020

Why did we fund this project?

• There are lots of clinical trials looking at the effect of new treatments for men whose cancer has spread beyond the prostate but still responds to hormone therapy.   
• Each trial can take many years to complete, and will tell us if a new treatment is more effective than current treatments.  However, it is also important to know if a new treatment works for all of the different types of men included in the trial.  This is important because we want to give treatments to men who will benefit most and avoid giving treatments, and any related side effects, to men who don't get any benefit.
• Professor Jayne Tierney and her team planned to carry out in-depth analysis of the results of multiple trials at the same time, including collecting individual patient data on the men taking part in the trials and the characteristics of their cancers.  This would allow them to quickly identify the most effective treatments, and find out which treatments are most likely to benefit which men. 

What did the team do?

• Results from clinical trials worldwide were reviewed to find out which treatments were most effective. 
• Anonymous patient data from these trials were collected to find out which men benefited the most from each treatment. 
• The team also investigated whether any early measures, available before the end of a clinical trial, could predict whether a treatment would help men live longer. 

What did the team achieve?

• The team found that adding a drug called abiraterone to standard hormone therapy helps men live longer. 
• They also discovered that adding prostate radiotherapy to standard hormone therapy is effective for men whose cancer has only spread to a small number of areas beyond the prostate, while adding the chemotherapy drug docetaxel to standard hormone therapy benefits men whose cancer has spread to a larger number, or bigger areas, beyond the prostate. 
• Early measures were identified that reliably predict if a treatment will help men live longer, which could shorten the length of future clinical trials by around 2 years. 

What does this mean for men?

• The evidence produced by this groundbreaking research has changed national and international guidance on treatment options for men with cancer that has spread beyond the prostate and still responds to hormone therapy. 
• This new guidance means that men can choose the treatments that are likely to work best for them, and can avoid the side effects of treatments that are unlikely to be effective.

• Furthermore, the methods developed during this analysis could help shorten the length of future clinical trials so that new treatment options become available to men more quickly.  The database of anonymous patient data will continue to be updated, helping researchers around the world develop new advances in prostate cancer treatment.