From her years, S.K.

May 31 (Reuters) - Data from an advanced clinical trial presented on Sunday showed that Johnson & Johnson's prostate cancer drug Erlida boosts the chances of eliminating cancer and reduces the risk of disease progression or death when used in conjunction with hormone suppression therapy six months before and after prostate surgery.

The study followed the patients for more than five years, and it was found that those who underwent this treatment regimen were about nine times more likely to have very limited or almost no detectable levels of testosterone in their prostate at the time of surgery compared to those who received only testosterone-suppressing treatment.

Johnson & Johnson said that the inclusion of Erlida in the treatment protocol helped reduce the risk of cancer spread or death by 20 percent.

These data, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago, are likely to transform the treatment of male patients with high-risk or locally advanced prostate cancer. Currently, surgical removal of the prostate and radiation therapy are the standard approaches to treating these cases.

The company noted that about 40 percent of the 330,000 cases diagnosed with prostate cancer in the United States are classified as high-risk.

The study also examined the effect of a year of treatment using Erlida with hormone therapy before and after surgery.

The results concluded that patients who received this combination therapy were able, on average, to postpone the need for additional treatment for more than six years, nearly twice as long as those who received hormone therapy alone.

Prolonged treatment with Arlida also helped reduce the risk of disease recurrence and death by 29 percent. Johnson & Johnson stated that nearly half of patients currently undergoing standard treatment—surgery and radiation—experience cancer recurrence and require additional treatments.

* "A radical transformation"

Erlida, scientifically known as apalutamide, belongs to a class of drugs called androgen receptor pathway inhibitors, which work by stopping the signals that stimulate the growth of prostate cancer.

"Currently, there are no drugs in the androgen receptor pathway inhibitor class approved for treating high-risk localized prostate cancer with either surgery or radiation therapy, so these findings could be a game-changer in treatment approaches," said Dr. Mary-Ellen Taplin, the study's lead researcher from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

The trial included more than 2,000 patients with localized high-risk or localized advanced prostate cancer who were candidates for prostatectomy surgery.

At the time of surgery, the results showed that 8.9 percent of patients who received the combination therapy (erlida with hormone therapy) had minimal or undetectable levels of cancer, compared to only about 1 percent of patients who received hormone therapy alone.

Common drugs in this category include Pfizer's Xtandi and Bayer's Nupica.

The company explained that the safety data related to the combination therapy using Erlida was consistent with previous studies, with the most common side effects including hot flashes, urinary incontinence, and erectile dysfunction.

The United States approved the use of Erlida in 2018, and it is currently used in conjunction with hormone therapy that inhibits the production of testosterone, which is responsible for stimulating the growth of prostate cancer.

The company indicated that it intends to work with regulatory authorities to obtain the necessary approvals for the global adoption of this combination therapy, for use in the early stages of prostate cancer.