A new drug combination for men with advanced prostate cancer has shown sustained increase in survival rates.

The results from the clinical trial of ENZAMET, co-chaired by Professor Christopher Sweeney, Director of the South Australian immunoGENomics Cancer Institute (SAiGENCI) that operates within the University of Adelaide, has been published in The Lancet Oncology.

For people with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer, the addition of an androgen receptor blocker with enzalutamide to standard therapy – suppression of testosterone, with or without chemotherapy - led to a 67 per cent survival rate after five years.

This compares to 57 per cent of people who were alive after five years after receiving the standard best practice treatment.

ENZAMET (ANZUP 1304) is a global collaborative investigator-initiated trial led by the Australian and New Zealand Urogenital and Prostate Cancer Trials Group (ANZUP).

“ENZAMET was the first trial to show a survival benefit from addition of enzalutamide, and the first to include patients receiving docetaxel chemotherapy at the same time,” Professor Sweeney said.