A study looking at EZN 4176 for advanced prostate cancer
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This study looked at a drug called EZN 4176 for prostate cancer that has spread to another part of the body and is no longer responding to hormone therapy.
Doctors often use hormone therapy to treat prostate cancer. This can keep it under control for long periods of time. But researchers are looking for treatments that will help men who have prostate cancer that stops responding to hormone therapy.
Prostate cancer needs the hormone testosterone to grow. The cancer cells have receptors that the testosterone can lock into. This encourages the cancer cells to grow.
In this study, the researchers looked at a drug called EZN 4176. It stops cancer cells from making more receptors and so doctors hoped it would help to slow cancer growth.
The aims of this study were to
- Find the highest safe dose of EZN 4176
- See if it slows the growth of prostate cancer that is no longer responding to hormone therapy
- Learn more about the side effects
Summary of results
The trial team found that EZN 4176 did not really help slow down the growth of prostate cancer that had stopped responding to hormone therapy.
This trial recruited 22 men. Everyone taking part had EZN 4176 once a week through a drip into a vein. The number of doses each man had depended on their individual situation.
The first few men had the lowest dose of EZN 4176. As they didn’t have any serious side effects, the next few men had a higher dose. And so on, for 6 different doses. This is called a dose escalation study. The men in the 6th group did have some more serious side effects so the doctors didn’t increase the dose any further.
The research team looked at how well the treatment worked and found that the cancer
- Stopped growing in 6 men
- Continued to grow in 16 men
EZN 4176 did cause some side effects. The most common were fever and chills when the men had treatment (an infusion reaction), tiredness (fatigue) and a temporary change in liver function.
The research team had hoped to recruit more men once they had found the best dose to use. But because the treatment didn’t work very well, even at the highest dose, they decided it was best not to continue with the trial.
They concluded that EZN 4176 was not a useful treatment when given weekly at the doses tested in this trial. They don’t recommend that this treatment regime is looked at further for this group of patients.
We have based this summary on information from the research team. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists () and published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the team who did the research. We have not analysed the data ourselves.
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How to join a clinical trial
Please note: In order to join a trial you will need to discuss it with your doctor, unless otherwise specified.
Chief Investigator
Prof Johann De Bono
Supported by
Enzon Pharmaceuticals Inc
If you have questions about the trial please contact our cancer information nurses
Freephone 0808 800 4040