scholarly journals Experience with degarelix in the treatment of prostate cancer

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neal D. Shore

Degarelix is a gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist for the first-line treatment of androgen-dependent advanced prostate cancer. It has a direct mechanism of action that blocks the action of GnRH on the pituitary with no initial surge in gonadotrophin or testosterone levels. Degarelix is the most extensively studied and widely available GnRH antagonist worldwide. Clinical studies have demonstrated similar efficacy to the GnRH agonist leuprolide in achieving testosterone suppression in patients with prostate cancer. However, degarelix produces a faster suppression of testosterone and prostate-specific antigen (PSA), with no testosterone surge or microsurges, thus preventing the risk of clinical flare in advanced disease. Clinical trials have demonstrated that degarelix can offer improved disease control when compared with a GnRH agonist in terms of superior PSA progression-free survival (suggesting that degarelix likely delays progression to castration-resistant disease), and a more significant impact on bone serum alkaline phosphatase and follicle-stimulating hormone. Degarelix is generally well tolerated, with no reports of systemic allergic reactions in any clinical studies. In conclusion, degarelix offers clinicians a rational first-line hormonal monotherapy option for the management of advanced prostate cancer.

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (07) ◽  
pp. 1253-1295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierluigi Colli ◽  
Hector Gomez ◽  
Guillermo Lorenzo ◽  
Gabriela Marinoschi ◽  
Alessandro Reali ◽  
...  

Chemotherapy is a common treatment for advanced prostate cancer. The standard approach relies on cytotoxic drugs, which aim at inhibiting proliferation and promoting cell death. Advanced prostatic tumors are known to rely on angiogenesis, i.e. the growth of local microvasculature via chemical signaling produced by the tumor. Thus, several clinical studies have been investigating antiangiogenic therapy for advanced prostate cancer, either as monotherapy or in combination with standard cytotoxic protocols. However, the complex genetic alterations that originate and sustain prostate cancer growth complicate the selection of the best chemotherapeutic approach for each patient’s tumor. Here, we present a mathematical model of prostate cancer growth and chemotherapy that may enable physicians to test and design personalized chemotherapeutic protocols in silico. We use the phase-field method to describe tumor growth, which we assume to be driven by a generic nutrient following reaction–diffusion dynamics. Tumor proliferation and apoptosis (i.e. programmed cell death) can be parameterized with experimentally-determined values. Cytotoxic chemotherapy is included as a term downregulating tumor net proliferation, while antiangiogenic therapy is modeled as a reduction in intratumoral nutrient supply. An additional equation couples the tumor phase field with the production of prostate-specific antigen, which is a prostate cancer biomarker that is extensively used in the clinical management of the disease. We prove the well posedness of our model and we run a series of representative simulations leveraging an isogeometric method to explore untreated tumor growth as well as the effects of cytotoxic chemotherapy and antiangiogenic therapy, both alone and combined. Our simulations show that our model captures the growth morphologies of prostate cancer as well as common outcomes of cytotoxic and antiangiogenic mono therapy and combined therapy. Additionally, our model also reproduces the usual temporal trends in tumor volume and prostate-specific antigen evolution observed in experimental and clinical studies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaleem S. Atchia ◽  
Christopher J.D. Wallis ◽  
Neil Fleshner ◽  
Paul Toren

Introduction: We sought to address whether there are clinical responses when patients who are failing gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist therapy are switched to degarelix. Androgen-deprivation therapy remains the backbone of treatment for disseminated prostate cancer and may be achieved with orchiectomy, GnRH agonists, or degarelix, a GnRH antagonist. Methods: To perform a systematic review and meta-analysis, a search of the BIOSIS Previews, Embase, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, MEDLINE, and Google Scholar databases was performed using key terms. Quantitative meta-analysis was performed to provide a pooled estimate of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) response at three months. Results: Thirteen studies were identified, eight of which were included in the qualitative and quantitative analyses. Patient characteristics were broadly similar between the studies. Out of 155 patients across all included studies, 20 had stable PSA after the switch (12.9%), 14 had between 10‒30% decrease in PSA (9.0%), three had between 30‒50% decrease (1.9%), and 13 had more than 50% decrease (8.4%). Random effects meta-analysis of these data demonstrated a pooled response rate of 27.75 (95% confidence interval 18.9‒36.5%; I2=7.9%). Changes in testosterone levels following the switch could not be quantitatively assessed due to lack of sufficient data. Conclusions: Our results suggest that a switch to GnRH antagonist following progression on a GnRH agonist may result in a stable or decreased PSA at three months in about 30% of patients. This information should be considered among the potential options to discuss with patients with a rising PSA on GnRH agonist therapy.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haofeng Zheng ◽  
Jialiang Chen ◽  
Wenhan Qiu ◽  
Sijie Lin ◽  
Yanxiong Chen ◽  
...  

Recently, several drugs have been introduced for the first-line treatment of chemotherapy-naive metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), but few studies have compared treatment outcomes directly. This indirect comparison among 10 clinical trials (n= 4870 patients) retrieved from PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Collaboration, and ClinicalTrails.gov was performed to assess the safety and efficacy of docetaxel, cabazitaxel, abiraterone, enzalutamide, and sipuleucel-T for the initial treatment of mCRPC. No significant differences in primary outcome (overall survival) were found among initial treatments. However, docetaxel had the highest probability (37.53%) of being the most effective, but at the cost of more adverse events, while enzalutamide was associated with the best secondary outcomes (prostate-specific antigen response, progression-free survival, quality of life, and adverse event profile). Thus, docetaxel is recommended as the first agent used for the chemotherapy of mCRPC, while enzalutamide is recommended as the first nonchemotherapy treatment. Additional clinical trials are needed to confirm these findings and establish the optimal order for multidrug treatment of mCRPC.


Author(s):  
K Kobayashi ◽  
N Okuno ◽  
G Arai ◽  
H Nakatsu ◽  
A Maniwa ◽  
...  

Abstract Aim The aim was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of abiraterone acetate plus prednisolone in patients with chemotherapy-naïve early metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who failed first-line androgen deprivation therapy. Methods Patients with early metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer with confirmed prostate-specific antigen progression within 1-year or prostate-specific antigen progression without having normal prostate-specific antigen level (<4.0 ng/mL) during first-line androgen deprivation therapy were enrolled and administered abiraterone acetate (1000 mg) plus prednisolone (10 mg). A minimum of 48 patients were required according to Simon’s minimax design. The primary endpoint was prostate-specific antigen response rate (≥50% prostate-specific antigen decline by 12 weeks), secondary endpoints included prostate-specific antigen progression-free survival and overall survival. Safety parameters were also assessed. Results For efficacy, 49/50 patients were evaluable. Median age was 73 (range: 55–86) years. The median duration of initial androgen deprivation therapy was 32.4 (range: 13.4–84.1) weeks and 48 patients experienced prostate-specific antigen progression within 1-year after initiation of androgen deprivation therapy. prostate-specific antigen response rate was 55.1% (95% confidence interval: 40.2%–69.3%), median prostate-specific antigen–progression-free survival was 24.1 weeks, and median overall survival was 102.9 weeks (95% confidence interval: 64.86 not estimable [NE]). Most common adverse event was nasopharyngitis (15/50 patients, 30.0%). The most common ≥grade 3 adverse event was alanine aminotransferase increased (6/50 patients, 12.0%). Conclusions Abiraterone acetate plus prednisolone demonstrated a high prostate-specific antigen response rate of 55.1%, suggesting tumor growth still depends on androgen synthesis in patients with early metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. However, prostate-specific antigen–progression-free survival was shorter than that reported in previous studies. Considering the benefit–risk profile, abiraterone acetate plus prednisolone would be a beneficial treatment option for patients with chemotherapy-naive metastatic prostate cancer who show early castration resistance.


2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (6_suppl) ◽  
pp. 183-183
Author(s):  
Yumiko Yokomizo ◽  
Narihiko Hayashi ◽  
Akitoshi Takizawa ◽  
Kazuki Kobayashi ◽  
Jun-ichi Ohta ◽  
...  

183 Background: It was reported that GnRH antagonist could extend progression free survival for prostate cancer patients significantly longer than GnRH agonist in a first line hormonal therapy. However, the usefulness of switching from GnRH agonist to GnRH antagonist as a second hormonal therapy remains obscure. We performed a multicentral prospective study to investigate whether the switching from GnRH agonist to GnRH antagonist (degalerix) for patients with castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) as the 2nd line hormonal therapy was effective. Methods: 37 patients who were pathologically diagnosed as prostatic adenocarcinoma and developed CRPC after 1st line hormonal therapy with GnRH agonist plus anti-androgens were enrolled. After confirming anti-androgen withdrawal syndrome, they were treated with switching from GnRH agonists to degalerix. The primary endpoint was PSA response (PSA decline or up to 10% over baseline PSA). Secondary endpoints were the time to 25% PSA increase from the baseline (PSA response time), PSA progression free survival (PPFS), the time to treatment failure, cancer specific survival, radiographic PFS (rPFS), and safety. Results: Mean age was 76 years old, super high risk; 20 cases (54.1%), high risk; 11 cases (29.7%), intermediate risk; 5 cases (13.5%), low risk; one case (2.7%). PSA responder rate was 24.3% (9 cases). In responders, the median PSA response time was 5.75 months, the median PPFS was 1.77 months, and rPFS rate at 3 months was 96%. Regarding safety, only 2 cases (5.4%) showed G3 of AE. The PSA response had no relationship with the change of serum testosterone, LH nor FSH. Conclusions: The effectiveness of switching from GnRH agonist to GnRH antagonist showed to be limited. Although no predictive factor of the switching was recognized, some long-term responders were seen. We expect the possibility of switching to GnRH antagonist for patients in the early stage of CRPC, especially non-metastatic status. Clinical trial information: UNKNOWN.


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