A study, conducted by pharmaceutical company Astellas Pharma Europe LTD, found when compared to patients prescribed a placebo, an investigational drug extended life by almost five months in men with advanced prostate cancer who already underwent chemotherapy treatment.

MDV3100 was created by Astellas Pharma Inc. for men with advanced prostate cancer. Results from a third phase of a survey found that MDV3100 lead to a high improvement of the overall prostate cancer survival rate, and an average improvement over placebo of 4.8 months. The survey also confirmed that patients had no significant problems taking MDV3100.

A separate study also conducted by Astellas, which questioned 500 oncologists and urologists in five different European countries, showed that 99 percent of the doctors feel that there is a need for new treatment options to extend the lives of advanced stage cancer patients. The study also showed that overall survival is considered the most important attribute of a new advanced prostate cancer treatment, according to 85 percent of oncologists, and 74 percent of urologists.

“Extending patients lives at this late stage of their disease is our primary aim, but it’s incredibly important to balance this with the impact treatment may have on patient quality of life,” Axel Heidenreich, Director of the Department of Urology, at Rheinisch-Westfalische Technische Hochschule University, in Germany, said in a statement.

The data was presented at the European Association of Urology (EAU) congress in Paris, France.

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