A Maltese medical researcher has spearheaded a study into what is being described as a major breakthrough in prostate cancer treatment.

Professor Gerhardt Attard from University College London led research that found that giving prostate cancer patients a drug called abiraterone halves their risk of dying from the cancer over six years.

Researchers tracked a control group of 988 men who randomly given the current standard of care, comparing them with 986 men who received the usual treatment, plus abiraterone. 

After six years, the cancer didn’t spread in 82% of men taking abiraterone, compared to 69% of those in the control group. Moreover, 86% of men taking abieraterone were still alive after six years, compared with 77% who received the standard treatment.

“This translates into a very significant improvement in life expectancy for men with high-risk prostate cancer that’s not spread beyond the prostate on conventional imaging,” Attard said of the results, while noting that more information was required on the the optimal length of abiraterone therapy.

We did not study different duration of treatment, so administering abiraterone for a shorter time may be equivalent and longer may be even more effective.”

Attard graduated from the University of Malta with a medicine degree in 1999, after which he moved to the UK, where he obtained a PhD from the University of London and specialised in prostate cancer research.

He is Team Leader of the Treatment Resistance Group at the UCL Cancer Institute.

Photo: Left: Prof. Gerhardt Attard, Right: Stock photo