(Reuters) - All patients in a study of a Johnson & Johnson drug for advanced prostate cancer will be offered the medicine after an independent monitoring committee found it demonstrated an improvement in patient survival.
- A program to provide early access to abiraterone acetate for patients who meet specified medical criteria is being initiated,
- Patients in the study received either the J&J drug plus the steroid prednisone or a placebo plus prednisone.
Independent data monitoring committees routinely oversee clinical trials to look for signs of safety problems that would lead to a study being halted, or for evidence that a drug works so well that it would be unethical not to offer it to patients receiving other medicines.
J&J widens access as cancer drug helps survival
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6885T220100909
(Reuters) - All patients in a study of a Johnson & Johnson drug for advanced prostate cancer will be offered the medicine after an independent monitoring committee found it demonstrated an improvement in patient survival.