US researchers have revealed a miracle discovery of an antibody called F77, offering hope of saving men with currently incurable prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer among men, claiming half a million lives each year worldwide, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Initial therapies treating tumor growth being fueled by androgen male hormones eventually failed as cancers stopped being hormone-sensitive. F77, on the other hand, targeted the most aggressive cancers and responded to those both sensitive and insensitive to male hormones.

The antibody ensures potential for diagnosis and treatment of both early-stage and advanced tumors. In addition, it bears the power to show positive results for the treatment of malignant prostate cancer for androgen-independent metastatic prostate cancer which affects the bones, the study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania showed.

The "monoclonal" antibody bounds more readily with cancer cells than with other benign tissues and cells, thereby causing the cancerous tissue to die. Its test on mice revealed that it bounded with the cancerous cells and hunted them down, thereby destroying the killer disease.

Unlike the new research, which raises the prospect of effective cure for advanced prostate cancer for the first time, other curative treatments like surgery and radiotherapy result in relapse of about
45% of patients with prostate cancer. The five-year survival rate for patients with metastatic prostate cancer is only 34%.