Patients with advanced prostate cancer have a greater chance of survival if treated with a targeted cancer drug in addition to chemotherapy, according to a new study.

Analysis of the study funded by Cancer Research UK and AstraZeneca UK found that adding the drug capivasertib to chemotherapy can improve survival rates for men whose cancer had spread to other parts of the body.

A total of 150 people took part in the trial, published in the journal European Urology, run by the Southampton Clinical Trials Unit (SCTU) which is based at the University of Southampton’s Centre for Cancer Immunology.

A SCTU spokeswoman said: “Often these patients will be given hormone therapy which can help control the cancer’s spread.

“But some patients do not respond to this treatment or become resistant over time, meaning the cancer will progress and patients will then need chemotherapy.

“Capivasertib is a targeted cancer drug that stops the signals cancer cells use to grow and divide and researchers therefore wanted to see whether adding this drug to standard chemotherapy treatment could help to control the cancer for longer and improve outcomes for these patients.

“The results showed that although capivasertib did not increase the time before the cancer started to grow again (progression free survival) overall survival was increased for patients in the capivasertib group compared to those in the placebo group.”

Dr Simon Crabb, associate professor of medical oncology, said: “This trial has shown that adding the drug capivasertib to chemotherapy can improve outcomes for patients with advanced prostate cancer and may be of particular benefit for patients previously treated with hormone therapy.

“Larger studies are now needed to confirm the findings from the ProCaid trial and increase our understanding of how best to use this approach.”