Institute of Cancer Research study of Zytiga contradicts NICE's rejection for advanced prostate cancer

A study by the Institute of Cancer Research in London and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust has shown abiraterone significantly extends the lives of patients with advanced prostate cancer, if given before chemotherapy.

A major Phase III clinical trial of abiraterone, marketed as Zytiga by US health care giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), showed that patients with advanced, aggressive prostate cancer lived more than four months longer on average if they received the drug before chemotherapy than if they did not.

Published in Lancet Oncology, the Phase III trial could fill a gap in previous evidence for the drug’s effectiveness pre-chemotherapy. A previous analysis published in 2013 showed that abiraterone before chemotherapy increased the time before cancer progressed but did not prove it gave an overall extension of life. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence cited this when rejecting abiraterone pre-chemotherapy in guidance last year.