New pill could stop cancer growth for 40,000 men

A hormone reduction pill which can be taken at home could benefit more than 40,000 men in England with advanced prostate cancer. Experts hailed the drug as a potential “game-changer” in how patients are treated.

Relugolix, also known as Orgovyx and made by Accord, is an androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), a medicine that reduces testosterone levels to treat prostate cancer. ADTs are usually administered by injection, but relugolix is the first oral treatment of its kind to be approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice).

The pill works by blocking the production of testosterone – which prostate cancer cells use to grow – in the testes. Nice has recommended the treatment for patients with advanced, hormone-sensitive, prostate cancer, which means the disease has progressed after radical treatment or is at a high risk of progression.

Relugolix is expected to be available to patients on the NHS within three months of Nice’s final draft guidance being published. Helen Knight, director of medicines evaluation at Nice, said: “We are continuing to focus on what matters most to people by recommending this innovative and effective treatment that can make a positive difference to people with advanced prostate cancer.

“Relugolix provides a convenient and flexible treatment option compared with therapies that need to be injected, helping people to avoid travel and time off work and the evidence shows it can improve people’s quality of life.”

Cancer Research UK estimates there are about 55,100 new prostate cancer cases each year in the UK, the equivalent to 150 per day. According to Nice, evidence from clinical trials on relugolix suggest it is better at reducing testosterone to levels that stop cancer