Good news. My latest results in the ABT-188 clinical trial.

After one month on ABT-188 (PARP Inhibitor), my PSA has gone from 17 to 4.04! This makes me extremely hopeful and renews my optimism which I was starting to lose.

Quick summary. ABT-188 is a drug that exploits the fact that I have the BRCA2 gene mutation. This is because PARP is a protein that helps repair DNA damage but it also helps stop the cancer cells from repairing their own DNA. The end result is that the cancer cell dies off. At least that is my simplistic understanding of it.

After my remarkable remission on Lupron and Casodex, my PSA started to rise again. I was all set to go to XTandi when the clinical trial for ABT-188 came up. Three oncologists advised that I grab the opportunity and I signed up.

It seemed well worth it. The PSA has fallen to 4.04 and I'm celebrating today by eating total crap food which I shall not disclosed least someone throws it back in my face the next time I preach a cancer diet!!!

Please note that this class of drugs I'm taking is only applicable to someone who has the BRCA gene mutation. But I thought everyone may find this encouraging in the fight against PCa.

Also note that while on ABT, I'm continuing to get Lupron injections but Casodex is out of the picture.

Good news is always welcome and a celebration certainly seems in order.

Thank you for the explanation of the trial and the drug. With a PSA of 36 at last testing, yet not having joined in to the ranks of those being treated by HT, this information is certainly something I will file away for possible future reference.

Sonny

This is from the Wikipedia page on PARP inhibitors. It seems promising. Since the mutation may prevent conventional therapies like Zytiga or XTandi to work for me for very long, combining PARP and targeted radiotherapy may be a powerful combination.

The main function of radiotherapy is to produce DNA strand breaks, causing severe DNA damage and leading to cell death. Radiotherapy has the potential to kill 100% of any targeted cells, but the dose required to do so would cause unacceptable side effects to healthy tissue. Radiotherapy therefore can only be given up to a certain level of radiation exposure. Combining radiation therapy with PARP inhibitors offers promise, since the inhibitors would lead to formation of double strand breaks from the single-strand breaks generated by the radiotherapy in tumor tissue with BRCA1/BRCA2 mutations. This combination could therefore lead to either more powerful therapy with the same radiation dose or similarly powerful therapy with a lower radiation dose

That's great news!

Andrew

Very good news, John, happy it is working so well for you

david

John keats. Very good news.

My congrats to you on your super low #. So happy your hope is renewed too. It is rather refreshing isnt it! I will keep an eye on more info myself about this ABT-188.

JohnKeats,

That is excellent news!

Enjoy that meal!

John,
Thanks for keeping us in the "loop"..keep your spirit us since that stuff really seems to be working! You might have some good beer to wash down that "crap" food! All the best to you!! A guy by the name of Logo has been quoting your poems-lol.
Bill

Really great to see a targeted therapy (gene issue directed therapy) and get those results early on. Sounds like this has a future in conjunction with chemo and radiations, too:

Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP)-1 and PARP-2 are involved in DNA repair via poly (ADP-ribosyl)ation of histones and DNA repair enzymes; elevated PARP levels can result in resistance to cytotoxic chemotherapy and radiation.4–10 Thus, PARP inhibitors hold promise as chemotherapy and radiation sensitizers.11–14 ABT-888, an orally bioavailable inhibitor of PARP, was studied because it possessed a wide margin of safety relative to its target-modulating dose in preclinical models, and demonstration of target modulation in human samples was critical to its subsequent development.

Excellent news John.....those are some serious numbers at diagnosis...highest PSA Ive seen yet. Glad you've found some success in the ABT-188...chris

John. That's great. It is always good to hear great news.
And remember, even though your battle might be different than mine, every battle that is won is one more closer to winning the war!

Great News! I hope this continues for you!
Mike