What is DEGARELIX (Firmagon®)?
DEGARELIX is a new fast-acting hormone treatment for advanced prostate cancer.
DEGARELIX is given as a simple injection beneath the skin and rapidly blocks hormone receptors in the pituitary gland, taking almost immediate effect. This is unlike some existing hormone treatments which can take up to four weeks to reduce testosterone to the required levels.
Trials have shown that the new drug can reduce levels of the male hormone, testosterone, below 0.5mg/ml within three days in more than 96 per cent of patients which makes the speed of response to DEGARELIX comparable to surgery to remove the testicles.
The most common hormone treatments currently used are well established and some have demonstrated proven survival benefits in patients with prostate cancer. However, they can cause an initial surge in testosterone, so doctors sometimes prescribe anti-androgen therapy alongside them, to combat this effect in patients with advanced prostate cancer, who they consider might be at risk of developing symptoms if testosterone levels are increased.
DEGARELIX does not produce these initial hormone surges and so doctors do not have to prescribe anti-androgen therapy to counteract them, thus avoiding any associated side effects and ensuring that men with prostate cancer only have to take one medication instead of two.
In clinical trials, DEGARELIX was generally well tolerated. The most common side effects were injection site reactions (such as pain or reddening of the skin at the injection site) or those due to the expected physiological effects of testosterone suppression (such as hot flushes and weight increase).