Prostate Cancer

Integrating a geriatric assessment into the care of older adults who are receiving cancer treatment in communi­ty oncology practices improves patient and caregiver satisfaction and encourages commu­nication about aging-related concerns, accord­ing to results of a clinical trial that enrolled 541 patients with advanced cancer.

The FDA has granted priority review status on a supplemental New Drug Application for rucaparib in advanced prostate cancer, according to a release issued by Clovis Oncology.1 The sNDA seeks approval for rucaparib as monotherapy treatment in patients with a BRCA1/2 mutation resulting in recurrent metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer. The agency has assigned a Prescription Drug User Fee Act date of May 15, 2020.

The present and future benefits of telehealth in oncology can be observed through Tahoe For­est Cancer Center and its affiliation with the UC Davis Cancer Center, use of other remote clinics, and participation in virtual tumor boards. Even though there are roadblocks to telehealth reaching more locations and more patients, the potential benefit warrants the time needed to get over those hurdles.

Neeraj Agarwal, MD, discusses the results from the randomized phase III TITAN trial, which enrolled over 1,000 patients with newly diagnosed metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer and randomized them to either androgen deprivation therapy plus the novel androgen receptor inhibitor apalutamide or ADT alone.

In December 2019, the FDA approved a number of new treatments in lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, urothelial carcinoma, breast cancer, and prostate cancer. A tissue complete assay was also approved by the FDA for use in a clinical trial evaluating pembrolizumab.

The Cchek Prostate Cancer Confirmation test&mdash;which utilizes artificial intelligence, flow cytometry, and liquid-biopsy technology to detect prostate cancer&mdash;has been commercially launched, according to Anixa Biosciences, Inc., developer of the test. Once it becomes available, this test will reduce the need for expensive and invasive biopsy procedures to diagnose patients with prostate cancer in certain patients.<br /> &nbsp;

A new study has found that enzalutamide given with androgen deprivation therapy significantly reduced the risk of metastatic progression or death in men with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer versus placebo plus ADT, including patients with low-volume disease and/or prior docetaxel therapy.<br /> &nbsp;

Heather H. Cheng, MD, PhD, discusses the role of genetic testing in prostate cancer as it continues to evolve in this space. This year, the&nbsp;2019 NCCN guidelines&nbsp;focused more on genetic testing in select patients with prostate cancer.

Enzalutamide is now approved by the FDA for the treatment of metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer, making it the first oral agent to be approved for three different types of advanced prostate cancer, according to a press release from Pfizer.<br /> &nbsp;

A significant proportion of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer with DNA repair gene aberrations responded well to treatment with olaparib in a phase II TOPARP-B trial, making olaparib the first targeted therapy to show benefit in this patient population, the Institute of Cancer Research reported in a press release.

In patients whose solid<strong> </strong>tumors harbor a mutation in <em>KRAS </em>G12C, therapy with MRTX849 has produced promising responses and acceptable toxicity across 3 tumors types, according to data presented at the 2019 American Association for Cancer Research&ndash;National Cancer Institute&ndash;European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics.

The combination of onvansertib with abiraterone acetate decreased the prostate-specific antigen levels in most of the evaluable patients treated in a phase II study, which used the combination in adult patients with metastatic castration-resistance prostate cancer, according to a press release from onvansertib developer, Trovagene, Inc.

Male patients with advanced prostate cancer had a 97% response rate to relugolix, a gonadotropin-releasing hormone receptor antagonist, in the phase III HERO study, meeting the primary end point of the study. The trial also met all 6 of its key secondary end points, according to a press release from Myovant Sciences.