Drug Combo Boosts Prostate Cancer Survival by 40%
London-UK, November 14, 2025
A pivotal new clinical trial has unveiled a major medical breakthrough in the treatment of advanced prostate cancer, demonstrating that a dual-drug combination therapy can significantly extend survival for patients by an unprecedented margin of 40%.
The trial focused on men whose cancer had spread and whose disease was still sensitive to standard hormone therapy, showing that the addition of a next-generation anti-androgen drug, enzalutamide, to the existing gold-standard treatment, androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), dramatically improved outcomes.
The findings, presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) congress, are set to immediately change clinical practice for tens of thousands of men globally, offering a new, highly effective front-line treatment strategy that can stave off disease progression and death for years.
Key Headlines
40% Survival Benefit:
The combination of Enzalutamide (a second-generation anti-androgen) with Androgen Deprivation Therapy (ADT) led to a 40% reduction in the risk of death compared to ADT alone over the 8-year follow-up period.
First-Line Standard:
Experts predict the findings will establish the combination as the new standard of care for men with hormone-sensitive metastatic prostate cancer (mHSPC).
* Early Intervention: The study reinforces the paradigm that using powerful, next-generation drugs much earlier in the disease course, rather than waiting for the cancer to become resistant, yields the highest benefit.
Global Impact:
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men worldwide, making this highly effective new treatment strategy a major global public health development.
The results originate from the extensive, multi-national ENZAMET trial, which enrolled over 1,100 men with metastatic, hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (mHSPC)—meaning their cancer was still responding to treatments that lower testosterone, the hormone that fuels prostate cancer growth.
For decades, the standard treatment for this stage of the disease has been Androgen Deprivation Therapy (ADT), which involves injections to suppress testosterone production by the testes.
The trial’s innovative design focused on testing the benefit of adding enzalutamide—a highly potent anti-androgen drug that blocks testosterone’s action directly at the cancer cell receptor—to the standard ADT treatment. While enzalutamide has been used for years to treat patients with later-stage, hormone-resistant (castration-resistant) disease, its effectiveness when used as part of the initial, first-line treatment was uncertain.
The long-term follow-up results proved to be overwhelmingly positive. After an average follow-up of eight years, the combination therapy group showed a significant improvement in overall survival.
Specifically, the risk of death in patients who received the enzalutamide-ADT combination was 40% lower than the risk of death in the control group who received ADT alone.
The median overall survival benefit translated to an additional two and a half years of life for the patients on the combination therapy compared to the control group.
This 40% relative risk reduction is an exceptionally high figure in oncology, particularly for a solid tumour. It immediately elevates the enzalutamide-ADT combination from an experimental approach to a required new standard of care.
The success reinforces a crucial strategic shift in cancer treatment:
the principle of maximal early intervention. By hitting the cancer with a highly effective, dual-action therapy while it is still vulnerable and hormone-sensitive, oncologists can delay the inevitable development of hormone resistance for a significantly longer period.
While the combination therapy did result in a higher incidence of mild to moderate side effects, such as increased fatigue and a higher risk of seizures in a small subset of patients, the overall quality of life was preserved, and the dramatic survival benefit clearly outweighed the manageable side effects.
The clinical community has embraced the findings as a landmark event. Leading oncologists are already revising treatment guidelines, and the new combination is expected to become the preferred initial treatment for men with metastatic prostate cancer globally.
This medical breakthrough promises to redefine the trajectory of the disease, transforming a life-threatening diagnosis into a chronic, manageable condition for a growing number of men.
