A trial looking at celecoxib before surgery for prostate cancer

Cancer type:

Prostate cancer

Status:

Results

Phase:

Phase 2

This trial was looking at celecoxib for newly diagnosed prostate cancer that had not spread.

Celecoxib (Celebrex) is one of a group of drugs called COX-2 inhibitors. It stops an enzyme Open a glossary item called COX-2 working. COX-2 inhibitors are already used for other medical conditions such as arthritis, and for the prevention of bowel cancer for certain people at high risk of developing it. Researchers think celecoxib may be useful in the future for treating, or possibly preventing prostate cancer.

Treatment: The enzyme COX-2 stimulates the production of a growth factor called vascular endothelial growth factor - VEGF. VEGF helps cancers make their own blood vessels so they can keep growing. This is called angiogenesis. Doctors thought that if celecoxib could reduce the amount of VEGF in prostate cancer cells, it would mean that the cancer would not be able to grow. But they were not sure.

The aim of this trial was to find out how good celecoxib was to treat prostate cancer.

Summary of results

The trial team found that celecoxib could be useful to treat prostate cancer.

This trial recruited 62 men. They were put into 1 of 2 groups

43 men had 4 weeks of celecoxib before surgery
19 men had surgery (radical prostatectomy) only

The researchers compared samples of cancer tissue from the prostate before and after surgery. They were able to look at the tissue samples of 45 men.

In those who had celecoxib, the tissue samples after surgery showed the amount of VEGF had reduced. And the number of cancer cells that died (apoptosis Open a glossary item ) had increased.

The researchers concluded that celecoxib could be useful to treat prostate cancer. And this should be looked at further in larger trials with bigger numbers.

We have based this summary on information from the team who ran the trial. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed Open a glossary item ) and published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.