UPDATE 1-J&J hormone-blocking pill slows prostate cancer spread

* Estimated to improve survival by 33 pct

* Side effects include cardiac disorder, high blood pressure

* Zytiga U.S. sales could reach $1.5 bln annually - analyst (Recasts, adds analyst comment, Medivation (NasdaqGM: MDVN - news) trial details)

CHICAGO, June 2 (Reuters) - A trial of Johnson & Johnson (TLO: JNJ-U.TI - news) 's Zytiga in certain prostate cancer patients showed that it doubled the amount of time they lived without the disease getting worse, potentially offering new hope for patients who see their cancer return.

The trial, involving 1,088 patients who had stopped responding to traditional hormonal drugs but had not been treated with chemotherapy, found that Zytiga slowed the spread of the disease by 58 percent.

Zytiga is one of several new prostate cancer treatments that may significantly prolong the life of patients by zeroing in more closely on certain mechanisms that help tumors proliferate. New data on the medications are being presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago.

The drug's robust results in earlier-stage cancer - it is already approved for men with prostate cancer who previously received chemotherapy - have implications for companies like Dendreon (Xetra: 615606 - news) , which sells therapeutic prostate cancer vaccine Provenge, and Medivation, which is developing a drug with a mechanism of action similar to Zytiga's.

The Zytiga trial found that patients given a placebo and the steroid prednisone went a median of 8.3 months before their disease worsened. Patients treated with the steroid and Zytiga were still faring better at the time the data were analyzed, so a comparable statistic was not yet available.

The study's lead investigator, Dr Charles Ryan of the University of California, San Francisco's Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, estimated that the Zytiga patients would enjoy at least 16 months of progression free survival (PFS).

The trial also found that prednisone-only patients lived for a median of 27.2 months. Overall survival for patients treated with Zytiga had also not yet been reached, but J&J estimated that it improved their survival by 33 percent, or 9 months.

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UPDATE 1-J&J hormone-blocking pill slows prostate cancer spread