British Study STAMPEDEN indicates that a special analysis of tumoral tissue can help doctors determine who benefits most from additional hormonal therapy and who can avoid unnecessary side effects
A significant progress in treating prostate cancer may enable doctors to choose more suitable therapies for each patient by avoiding intensive treatment when their benefits are limited.
New British Clinical Study Results STAMPEDEDEN shows that the molecular test Decipher, which analyzes gene activity in tumoral tissue, can help identify high – risk prostate patients who benefit most from increased hormone therapy.
The findings were released on October 24th 2026 at the European Association for Medical Oncology Congress ( ESMO), Madrid, by scholar University College London ( U n CL).
What is the Decipher test, and how does it work?
Decippher is a genomic test conducted in a sample of prostate cancer tissue, usually taken during biopsy or surgical intervention.
It analyzes the activity of tumor genes and provides a numerical assessment that helps predict the risk of progress and spread of the disease.
The higher the outcome, the greater the risk of cancer spreading to other parts of the body.
According to researchers, any 0.1 points increase in the decipher score was linked to a considerable increase in risk for distant metastases and death from prostate cancer.
Which patients benefit most from intensive therapy?
Standard treatment for patients involved in this analysis was based on the therapy for lowering male hormone levels, known as Androgens’ deprivation therapy.
Previous studies had shown that increasing abirateron hormonal grass could significantly improve survival among men with high – risk prostate cancer.
However, this therapy can cause side effects, including intense fatigue, high blood pressure, and liver function disorders.
The new results show that highly valued patients of the Decipher test, in which the disease had not spread to lymph nodes, benefited more from increasing abirateron.
While lower – score patients had lower risk of spreading cancer, what suggests that some of them may not need additional treatment.
Over 27 thousand patients in analysis
Researchers analyzed the data of 27.607 patients from the daily clinical practice, as well as 401 men with metastaseless prostate cancer, including in the STAMPEDE study.
The results showed that the test was valuable in predicting the risk of spreading the disease.
In patients without the involvement of lymph nodes, the absolute benefit from the addition of abirateron to lowering distant metastases over five years was about 10H11 percentage points for those with high or very high decippher scores, compared to about 2 percentage points in lower patients.
A Step Toward Custom Treatment of Cancer
The study chairman, Dr. Sarah Howlett of the UCL Cancer Institute stressed that preventing the spread of the disease is crucial to men with very high risk prostate cancer.
According to her, the results suggest that genomic testing can help doctors adapt treatment to the biological characteristics of the tumor.
Lower-risk genomic patients can potentially avoid additional treatments, while those with higher risk can benefit from a more intense approach.
However, researchers point out that more studies are needed before the test is used routine to decide whether a patient can avoid additional therapy.
This means that the results are promising, but are not yet enough grounds for changing the treatment without expert evaluation.
The discovery marks a step toward personal oncology, where cancer – treatment decisions are based not only on the disease stage but also on the molecular characteristics of the tumor. /Telegraphy/