Odds-defying prostate cancer drug developed in B.C. hits clinical trials

VANCOUVER – A made-in-British Columbia treatment is offering fresh hope to men battling prostate cancer.

Researchers at the B.C. Cancer Agency and the University of British Columbia have been approved to leave the lab with their odds-defying breakthrough drug and begin clinical trials.

B.C. Cancer Agency scientist Dr. Marianne Sadar says the statistical chances of reaching this milestone of are one in 1,000.

The new drug — dubbed EPI-506 — targets the end of a protein on prostate cancer cells to make them more vulnerable to hormones like testosterone.

While the effectiveness of earlier trial drugs that targeted the protein's front quickly waned, lab research indicates this new treatment successfully slows tumour growth past the early stages of treatment.

Phase I clinical trials begin today at sites across North America for the drug, which received $2.6 million from the B.C. Cancer Foundation over its 17-year development.