AstraZeneca releases upbeat data on cancer drug

New data on AstraZeneca's promising prostate cancer therapy ZD4054 shows that patients taking the drug lived on average seven more months than patients receiving standard therapy. But the mid-stage trial failed to demonstrate an improvement in progression-free survival. The new data was unveiled at the European Cancer Conference in Barcelona and follows up on AstraZeneca's announcement last July that it would advance ZD4054 into a late-stage trial. Some analysts say that the therapy has the potential to become a blockbuster.

"The promising results from the EPOC study suggest that ZD4054 10mg once-daily has the potential to increase the median overall survival time for men with asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic metastatic HRPC," says the company, "with the benefit of a manageable side-effect profile and the convenience of once-daily oral dosing."

- here's the release on the study

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