HQ Team
July 19, 2024: A new pill that treats hormone sensitive advance prostate cancer has been approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) in the UK. The pill could benefit more than 40,000 men in England with advanced prostate cancer.
Relugolix, also known as Orgovyx and made by Accord, is an androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), a medicine that reduces testosterone levels to treat prostate cancer. Prostate cancer cells need androgen (male) hormones, such as testosterone, to grow. ADT reduces the levels of androgen hormones, with drugs or surgery, to prevent prostate cancer cells from growing.
Relugolix
ADTs are usually administered as injectibles and need to be given under supervision, but relugolix is the first oral treatment of its kind to be approved.
Relugolix is reportedly the only oral option of ADT drugs known as gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogues with its launch globally in 2020.
The top health body has approved the drug for patients with advanced, hormone-sensitive, prostate cancer. This means that the disease has received radical treatment or is at a high risk of progression.
Helen Knight, director of medicines evaluation at Nice, said: “We are continuing to focus on what matters most to people by recommending this innovative and effective treatment that can make a positive difference to people with advanced prostate cancer.
“Relugolix provides a convenient and flexible treatment option compared with therapies that need to be injected, helping people to avoid travel and time off work and the evidence shows it can improve people’s quality of life.”
ADTs are associated with an increased risk of heart attacks and heart failure, but this risk was lower in relugolix compared to leuprolide.
Other Treatments
The clinical trials on relugolix suggest it is better at reducing testosterone to levels that stop cancer growth compared to other ADT treatments available such as Leuprolide..
A new research of two randomized clinical trials suggests that relugolix rapidly achieves sustained castration ((testosterone level <50 ng/dL)in patients with localized and advanced prostate cancer receiving radiotherapy.
The drug has already been approved in the US by the FDA and in some other countries including India. The USFDA has also approved Pfizer Inc’s oral Talzenna drug in combination with Xtandi to treat advanced metastatic prostate cancer in adult patients.
Another drug green-lighted by the FDA is Astellas Pharma’s prostrate cancer drug Xtandi. The enzalutamide treatment is meant for non-metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer with biochemical recurrence at high risk for metastasis, according to an FDA statement.
