"This study confirms that the increased risk factor associated with high-grade PIN is real and not just a coincidence," said Dr. Mitchell S. Steiner, chief executive officer with GTx, Inc.
"The next step is to develop an effective therapy for treating high grade PIN, before prostate cancer has a chance to take root. We know that there is a measurable window of opportunity for treatment before the cancer appears.
"We must take advantage of that opportunity as a key step toward prostate cancer prevention."
In this prospectively designed study, some 109 men with high-grade PIN and no prostate cancer at baseline were analyzed. In addition to the baseline biopsy, patients were re-biopsied at six and 12 months to test for the presence of prostate cancer. Results demonstrate that within one year, men in the placebo group had a 31.4 percent risk of being diagnosed with prostate cancer.
A sub-set analysis of the placebo patients in a year long, chemopreventive toremifene study, which was also presented at the AACR meeting here, confirmed that men with high-grade PIN have an increased, cumulative risk of being diagnosed with prostate cancer after one year. According to the National Cancer Institute, prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in America among men. With an estimated 220,000 new cases diagnosed each year, one in every five men will get prostate cancer during his lifetime. African-American men are at special risk for the disease. In fact, the incidence rate in African-Americans is 60 percent higher than that in white males and double the mortality rate. An estimated 29,900 American men lose their lives to prostate cancer each year.
Founded in 1907, the American Association for Cancer Research is a professional society of more than 24,000 laboratory, translational, and clinical scientists engaged in all areas of cancer research in the United States and in more than 60 other countries. AACR's mission is to accelerate the prevention and cure of cancer through research, education, communication, and advocacy. Its principal activities include the publication of five major peer-reviewed scientific journals: Cancer Research; Clinical Cancer Research; Molecular Cancer Therapeutics; Molecular Cancer Research; and Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. AACR's Annual Meetings attract more than 15,000 participants who share new and significant discoveries in the cancer field. Specialty meetings, held throughout the year, focus on the latest developments in all areas of cancer research.