Vitamin pill for prostate cancer

A vitamin D pill, called Asentar has been developed to treat advanced prostate cancer. From the preliminary phase two trials that were done for this new drug, Asentar, Professor James said that “patients taking the drug lived for an average of an extra nine months longer than those taking another chemotherapy drug-taxotere-alone.”
However, there is doubt that the phase three trials will have the same success as the earlier tests. From the laboratory work, there was evidence that the cancer cells were not able to respond in the normal way to vitamin D anymore, and kept on dividing in an uncontrolled fashion. The solution to this problem as from Dr. Julie Sharp’s perspective is through a much larger study to determine if Asentar is effective and safe. I found this aspect of physiology interesting enough to share with the class because prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6264533.stm