Singapore: Updated results from a phase II study of orteronel, a selective oral 17,20 lyase inhibitor, dosed without prednisone in patients with non-metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (nmCRPC) and rising prostate-specific antigen (PSA) has showed encouraging results.

Millennium, the Takeda Oncology Company, and its parent company Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceutical, presented the results in a poster discussion session at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago, US.

"These data support the continued evaluation of orteronel in a steroid free regimen. Non-metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer is an area of unmet need, and therapies that reduce PSA without the need for concomitant corticosteroids are of particular interest in these earlier lines of prostate cancer treatment," said Dr Daniel George of Duke University Medical Center.

"We are encouraged by the results with orteronel in non-metastatic prostate cancer," said Dr Karen Ferrante, chief medical officer, Millennium. "These data support the continued evaluation of orteronel in a steroid free regimen."