By Lynn Allison From Newsmax

It’s fitting that during the month of September, which is National Prostate Awareness month, British researchers have announced a new class of medications that shows promise for inhibiting prostate cancer growth.

According to Medical Daily, researchers from the Department of Pharmacy & Pharmacology and the Department of Chemistry at the University of Bath have zeroed in on a protein — called AMACR — that is highly active in aggressive prostate cancers, as well as in a number of other cancers.

The UK team developed new drugs that targeted and lowered the activity level of this aggressive protein. And this discovery may open up new pathways for research in treating a whole range of cancers, they say.

“This means that we have some really promising avenues to explore as we work toward developing new treatments against prostate cancer and other cancers where AMACR is involved,” says Dr. Matthew Lloyd, lead author from the Department of Pharmacy & Pharmacology.

Simon Grieveson, head of research funding at Prostate Cancer UK, said: “With one man dying from prostate cancer every 45 minutes in the UK, there is a desperate need to develop new and effective treatments for this disease, and that’s why it’s so important that we continue to fund explorative studies like this.

“The protein AMACR has been shown to be present in larger quantities in aggressive prostate cancer cells, and this research group has successfully developed a technique to find the protein and monitor its activity. They have now found certain compounds that can target the protein’s activity in the lab, and stop cancer cells in their tracks.”

According to Zero Cancer.org, one man dies of prostate cancer every 17 minutes in the United States. That’ a little more than 86 deaths per day, and 31,620 per year — or enough to fill an entire baseball stadium.

Prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death among American men, and the most commonly diagnosed. While early detection saves lives, advances in treatment offer the best hope for living cancer-free for a long time.

The new class of drugs identified by the University of Bath team is said to be 20 times more effective than existing drugs that target the AMACR protein. While researchers acknowledge that this treatment is still in its infancy, the new drugs offer hope and promise for those suffering from prostate cancer now and in coming years.

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