Zytiga Approved for use in Australia

A drug which extends the life of men with advanced prostate cancer has been approved for use in Australia.
The drug Abiraterone Acetate (Zytiga) is the first of a new generation of drugs to be approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) for men who have become resistant to prostate cancer hormone treatments. This drug was approved in April 2011 in the USA and May 2011 in Europe, but has taken over an extra year before it has finally been approved in Australia.

Professor of medical oncology at the University of Western Sydney Paul De Souza said for the past five years chemotherapy had been the only option for many men with this type of advanced prostate cancer, apart from those in clinical trials.
He said there had been intense drug trials for the past three to four years testing the new treatments.
"This drug, Zytiga, is the first cab off the rank," Prof De Souza told AAP.
"It’s a pill, it’s extremely well tolerated and it prolongs survival.
"it works and it doesn’t cause the side effects that chemotherapy does."
He said two separate trials had shown the drug prolongs survival in men who have failed hormone treatment and chemotherapy but it also worked in men before starting chemotherapy.
Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia chief executive Dr Anthony Lowe said the drug’s potential to extend the life of sufferers was a significant breakthrough.
"This is a group of men for whom, until 12 months ago, there was really nothing available to them. This is a very important development," he told AAP.
Zytiga works by targeting prostate cancer cell growth by stopping male hormone production at all sources – the testes, adrenal glands and the tumour itself.
University of Queensland Associate Professor of Medicine Dr Paul Mainwaring said prostate cancer growth was fuelled by androgens naturally produced in men.
"By inhibiting androgen production at all sources this new therapy removes the fuel from the fire, reducing the cancer’s ability to grow or spread," Dr Mainwaring said.

The drug’s manufacturer Janssen is working with the federal government to add the therapy to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) to be subsidised in Australia.