Johnson & Johnson reports 75% tumor shrinkage in new prostate cancer study

Check your medicine cabinet news this week. Johnson & Johnson, the New Brunswick healthcare giant, just highlighted promising findings from three separate cancer studies during the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress 2026 in Berlin. An early-stage trial involving patients with advanced prostate cancer found that an experimental oral drug called JNJ-6143 shrank or eliminated measurable tumors in 75% of the 38 evaluable patients receiving a 50-milligram dose, according to NJBIZ.

Twelve of 16 patients in that group experienced a confirmed complete or partial response. “These early results with JNJ-6143 are encouraging because we are seeing meaningful anti-tumor activity in patients who have already received multiple therapies,” said Johann de Bono, a prostate cancer researcher involved in the study.

The company acquired the technology behind the treatment through its $3.05 billion acquisition of Halda Therapeutics in December 2025. In a separate Phase 3 substudy, J&J found that Erleada combined with hormone therapy before and after surgery reduced the risk of prostate cancer recurrence or death by 62% compared with surgery alone in 406 patients.

Three years after treatment, 63% of patients receiving the drug combination remained free of recurrence. Yusri Elsayed, J&J’s global therapeutic area head of oncology, noted the drug is part of the company’s broader exploration of new cancer treatments. J&J also reported that Rybrevant Faspro combined with other drugs produced a 77% response rate in an early-stage study of 30 patients with head and neck cancer. J&J noted that the studies are all at different stages of development and further research is needed.

Photo: Daderot, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons