Focus group meeting on advanced prostate cancer 關於晚期前列腺癌 焦點小組會議

Astellas Pharma is working to organize a focus group meeting on advanced prostate cancer, which will hear from caregivers and men living with the disease. We are hoping you may be willing to ask your membership if they are interested in applying to participate.

This focus group will be held on November 16 in Vancouver. Those who are interested will be contacted for a brief screening discussion. Participants who are chosen will be reimbursed for mileage and parking/taxis, and will receive an honorarium of $125 for their time. If they elect not to receive this, a donation in this amount will be made to PCC or PCFBC on their behalf. There will be one session for caregivers, and one for men living with prostate cancer. We expect that each session will take approximately 2 hours.

The objectives of the focus group are to better understand the following:

·         The patient and caregiver’s experience following a diagnosis of prostate cancer

o   Their experience at each stage

o   The medical professionals with whom they have spoken/dealt

·         Their most trusted and valuable sources of information and support

o   How did they access this information?

o   Challenges/barriers they have encountered to identifying and accessing those resources

o   How individuals overcame or managed these challenges

·         The discussion with respect to treatment choice

o   Who ultimately decided on the treatment(s)? 

o   What was the patient and caregiver’s role in these decisions?

·         Their suggestions for improvements to the type, quality and delivery of information/support

No personal information will be divulged or shared with Astellas; the process is strictly confidential.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at 416-425-9143, extension 208, or my colleague Evelyn Yallen at extension 202.

Thanks,

James Thayer
Senior Account Executive  
Energi P R

可能的前列腺癌治療 Potential prostate cancer treatment developed in B.C. gets big boost

Media Release | December 15, 2015 

A potential treatment for advanced prostate cancer developed by the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute (VCHRI) scientists has been licensed to pharmaceutical company Roche, marking UBC’s largest licensing agreement to date.

Artem Cherkasov

Developed at the Vancouver Prostate Centre, the new drug technology that is in pre-clinical development could one day be used to treat prostate cancers that have become resistant to existing treatments. The Vancouver Prostate Centre is a research hub hosted by UBC and VCHRI and designated a national Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research.

“We are thrilled that a potential treatment discovered here in B.C. will be developed further and could help many patients dealing with this disease,” said UBC Interim President Martha Piper. “This agreement is an excellent example of the vital role that universities can play in creating and developing new technologies.”

Paul Rennie

When advanced prostate cancer spreads, it becomes metastatic and virtually incurable. Current treatments initially slow the spread of the disease and help prolong a patient’s life but the cancer eventually mutates and becomes resistant to drugs. The new treatment, developed by a research team led by Paul Rennie and Artem Cherkasov, is designed to outsmart the cancer by targeting a site in the cancer cells that is not prone to mutation.

• Watch Rennie and Cherkasov explain how their new technology works in this video.

“We’re at a stage now that we need the right pharmaceutical partner to help to move this technology from a discovery into a finished product,” said Rennie, a professor in the department of Urologic Sciences at UBC and director of laboratory research at the Vancouver Prostate Centre.

“Licensing a treatment to a company is a critical step in ensuring that new technologies end up helping people who need them,” said Brad Wheeler, technology transfer manager at the University-Industry Liaison Office and lead negotiator on the Roche license.

The licensing agreement also stipulates that research will continue in collaboration with the scientists at the Vancouver Prostate Centre.

“We’ve brought computers into biology and we can see what’s going on before we test it in the lab,” said Cherkasov, associate professor at the department of Urologic Sciences and a senior research scientist at the Vancouver Prostate Centre.

Under the terms of the agreement with Roche, UBC and VCHRI can expect to receive an upfront payment, and up to $141.7 million US in pre-clinical, clinical and sales milestone payments for the first product to reach the market, and royalties thereafter. The scientists will share 50 per cent of the net revenues.

BACKGROUND

The potential new treatment was developed using a new computer technology that can scan a database of millions of different molecules to find the ones that will work best as possible treatments.

The research was funded in part by Prostate Cancer Canada, Prostate Cancer Foundation (U.S.), Safeway Canada, the CIHR’s Proof of Principle commercialization program, and PC-TRiADD.

Find other stories about: Artem Cherkasov, Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research, Paul Rennie, Roche,Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, Vancouver Prostate Centre

卑詩省製成前列腺癌藥物進入臨床試驗 A made-in-B.C. prostate cancer drug entering clinical trials

December 02, 2015

Vancouver, BC – A prostate cancer drug developed by researchers at the BC Cancer Agency and the University of British Columbia is entering human clinical trials. The drug is specifically designed to target and shut down metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer (m-CRPC) when other treatments have failed.

“Today represents a significant milestone as we witness the fruits of our labour in the lab move to the clinic to potentially help men facing metastatic prostate cancer,” said Dr. Marianne Sadar, Distinguished Scientist at the BC Cancer Agency and Professor in the UBC Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. “We faced one in 1000 odds in developing a drug that would prove to be a candidate for patient trials.”

Over a decade in the making, the drug EPI-506 is the first to target the ‘back end’ of the androgen receptor protein, called the N-terminal domain. The androgen receptor drives most prostate cancer cells and makes them sensitive to androgen hormones, such as testosterone.

Current drug therapies for advanced prostate cancer aim at the opposite end of the androgen receptor, away from the N-terminal domain. While initially effective in slowing tumour growth, these therapies eventually fail. Sadar and Raymond Andersen, a Professor of Chemistry at UBC, specifically designed EPI-506 to shut down m-CRPC when these treatments have failed.

A Phase I multicentre clinical trial for EPI-506 opens today at the BC Cancer Agency and other sites in the USA.

“We are excited to initiate this clinical trial with EPI-506 in Canada,” said Bob Reider, CEO, ESSA Pharma Inc. “The potential to successfully treat prostate cancer in those patients whose cancer has failed to respond to current therapies hinges on the novel mechanism of action of EPI-506.”

Dr. Kim Chi, co-Principal Investigator for North America and Associate Professor in the UBC Division of Medical Oncology, will run the Canadian trial. He treats men with prostate cancer each day in his practice at the BC Cancer Agency. “Offering emerging treatment options discovered in the lab to clinical trials for men with m-CRPC is critical to finding new solutions for our patients,” said Dr. Chi.

BC Cancer Foundation donors have provided $2.6 million to advance Dr. Sadar’s eureka moment— identifying a completely new way to attack prostate cancer—through to the development of a drug candidate that proved successful in lab testing. Funding over the 17 years from concept to the start of clinical trials comes from grants awarded to Dr. Sadar from the USA National Cancer Institute, the USA Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Dr. Andersen received grants from the Canadian Cancer Society.

Quick facts:

• Over 3,700 men in British Columbia will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year.
• Metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer (m-CRPC) is the lethal form of the disease and is resistant to most treatments.
• EPI-506 is a drug discovered in collaboration between Dr. Marianne Sadar at the BC Cancer Agency and UBC, and Dr. Raymond Andersen at UBC’s Department of Chemistry.
• The EPI-506 Phase I/II clinical trial is sponsored by ESSA Pharma Inc. and has both FDA and Health Canada approval for testing in humans as an investigational drug.
• The EPI-506 Phase I/II clinical trial is designed for patients with metastatic prostate cancer and will explore safety, tolerability and anti-tumour activity.
• BC Cancer Foundation donors have provided significant support of $2.6 million to advance Dr. Sadar’s research and development of a new treatment for prostate cancer.

The BC Cancer Agency, an agency of the Provincial Health Services Authority, is committed to reducing the incidence of cancer, reducing the mortality from cancer, and improving the quality of life of those living with cancer. It provides a comprehensive cancer control program for the people of British Columbia by working with community partners to deliver a range of oncology services, including prevention, early detection, diagnosis and treatment, research, education, supportive care, rehabilitation and palliative care. For more information, visitwww.bccancer.bc.ca

The BC Cancer Foundation is the bridge that connects philanthropic support and research breakthroughs in cancer knowledge.  As the fundraising partner of the BC Cancer Agency and the largest funder of cancer research in this province, we enable donors to make contributions to leading-edge research that has a direct impact on improvements to cancer care for patients in British Columbia. We fund with the goal of finding solutions. Visit www.bccancerfoundation.com to make a donation or to learn how you can make a difference in the lives of those affected by cancer.

ESSA Pharma Inc. ESSA Pharma is a development-stage pharmaceutical company focused on developing novel and proprietary therapies for the treatment of castration resistant prostate cancer (“CRPC”) in patients whose disease is progressing despite treatment with current therapies. ESSA believes that its product candidate, EPI-506, can significantly expand the interval of time in which patients suffering from CRPC can benefit from hormone-based therapies. EPI-506 acts by disrupting the androgen receptor (“AR”) signaling pathway, which is the primary pathway that drives prostate cancer growth. We have shown that EPI-002, the primary metabolite of EPI-506, prevents AR activation by binding selectively to the N-terminal domain (“NTD”) of the AR. A functional NTD is essential for activation of the AR. Blocking the NTD prevents activation of the AR by all of the three known mechanisms of activation. In pre-clinical studies, blocking the NTD has demonstrated the capability to overcome the known AR-dependent mechanisms of CRPC. ESSA was founded in 2009 and is located in Vancouver, British Columbia and Houston, Texas.

Related Reading:

Safety and Anti-Tumor Study of Oral EPI-506 for Patients With Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer

2015/12/03 Mingpao - 卑詩前列腺癌新藥臨牀試驗

角聲癌症關懷 - 癌症新藥的發展，希望和挑戰

News/links referred by Prostate Cancer Support Groups in June/July 2013

Prostate Cancer Statistics: 2013
Guest Blog: Dr. Stuart Edmonds, VP of Research, Health Promotion and Survivorship

The new cancer statistics were released by Canadian Cancer Society on May 29: In 2013, it is estimated that approximately 23,600 Canadian men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, and about 3,900 will die from the disease. That’s down from the 26,500 new cases estimated in 2012.

The death rate has been declining by almost 4% per year between 2001 and 2009. Research has played a critical role in this progress and research funded by PCC. Read more on research projects: CPC-GENE and PC-STAR. 


Speaker Videos

At each PSA meeting of Vancouver Island, the formal presentations are taped and made available on this website. http://www.theprostatecentre.org/support-group/expert-videos-new/


Film a short interview about your life with advanced prostate cancer!


This summer Canadian Cancer Survivor Network (NCCSN) is working on a program to generate awareness about metastatic prostate cancer and the unique challenges patients face. To bring this campaign to life, CCSN is looking for men living with metastatic prostate cancer who are willing to share their personal experiences in a video and also potentially with the media later in the summer and into the fall. Please find the details below for your consideration!

WHAT: Film a short interview about your life with advanced prostate cancer.

WHERE: Your home! We want to make this as simple as possible, so we’ll come to you with a video crew. We may also want to film outdoors near your home.

WHEN: We plan to film patients at the end of July or beginning of August.

WHO: Yourself and possibly a loved one.

TIME COMMITMENT: We should only need three hours of your time.

If you or someone you know is willing to participate or interested in learning more about this opportunity we’d love to hear from you by Friday, July 19.

Please email Jackie at jmanthorne@survivornet.ca to participate.

BC-developed prostate cancer drug holds out hope for clinical trials

http://www.bccancer.bc.ca/NR/rdonlyres/561453E5-5404-4702-B6C5-4D0E784ECE4D/64367/20130510EPI001NR.pdf


A new class of drugs that should stop the androgen receptor of prostate cancer cells send a message to keep growing:

http://www.pcf.org/site/c.leJRIROrEpH/b.8685359/k.D7C8/Taking_the_Lethal_out_of_Prostate_Cancer_plus_Entirely_New_Class_of_Drug_Shows_Promise_Against_Advanced_Disease_video.htm



Radiation Particle drug for bone metastatic disease gets approved:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/234945.php



Guidelines for use of new drugs for metastatic disease:

http://www.auanet.org/education/guidelines/castration-resistant-prostate-cancer.cfm



Marianne Sadar's and large research group's research paper on their new drug:

http://www.jci.org/articles/view/66398/pdf/render

Prostate Cancer Hormone Treatment: Kidney Risk?
http://www.webmd.com/prostate-cancer/news/20130716/kidney-failure-a-possible-risk-of-prostate-cancer-hormone-treatment-study
NOTE: It is interesting data but not definitive evidence. Suggests a possible correlation but not direct effect.

We have to be careful interpreting studies and looking at the quality of evidence.

Vancouver Prostate Centre Awarded Six Movember Discovery Grants
http://www.prostatecentre.com/node/351

More Prostate Cancer research News on US PCF website:

http://www.pcf.org/site/c.leJRIROrEpH/b.5796557/k.8785/Research_News.htm


More Prostate Cancer News/Events on The Prostate Cancer Centre Victoria website:

http://www.theprostatecentre.org/category/news/