Adding abiraterone to standard prostate treatment improves survival by 40%, studies find

The hormone blocking drug abiraterone extended life in men with prostate cancer when used first line at the start of standard treatment, two studies have found.

Abiraterone is usually used in men whose prostate cancer has spread and has stopped responding to standard hormone therapy. But the two studies, published in the New England Journal of Medicine,12 suggest that it could benefit all men at the start of treatment, whether they have metastatic prostate cancer or prostate cancer that has not spread.

In the first study,1 part of the Systemic Therapy in …