Pill Delivers Prostate Cancer Breakthrough

A new experimental pill taken once a day is proving effective against an advanced, aggressive form of prostate cancer which has resisted other therapies, reports Reuters. The drug, abiraterone, created by Cougar Biotechnology, significantly shrank tumors in a clinical trial, according to a study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. It could be available by 2011. Prostate cancer is the second-leading cancer killer of men after lung cancer.

"This drug prevents the cancer from making its own hormones that allow the cancer cells to survive," said the lead researcher. "We believe this drug will make a difference." (More Cougar Biotechnology stories.)