New Therapy for Aggressive Prostate Cancer Improves Survival

The experimental treatment relies on radioactive molecules that seek out tumor cells, a strategy that may be useful against other cancers.

An experimental therapy has prolonged life in men with aggressive prostate cancer that has resisted other treatments, offering new hope to patients with advanced illness and opening the door to a promising new form of cancer therapy. Among men who received the new therapy, there was a nearly 40 percent reduction in deaths over the course of the clinical trial, compared with similar patients who received only standard treatment, researchers reported on Wednesday. Prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death among American men, after lung cancer; an estimated 34,130 men will die of prostate cancer this year. One in eight men will be diagnosed with the disease at some point in their lives. The risk increases with age, and the cancer is more common in Black men.