Docetaxel, Bevacizumab with ADT May Produce PSA Response

Docetaxel with bevacizumab as well as androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is feasible and produces PSA response in men with prostate cancer who experience biochemical recurrence, according to a study published online ahead of print in Cancer.

Researchers led by Rana McKay, MD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute looked at 41 patients who had increasing PSA levels, PSA doubling time of at least 10 months, and no evidence of metastases after radical prostatectomy and/or radiotherapy.

Patients were given ADT for 18 months as well as docetaxel every three weeks for four cycles and bevacizumab every three weeks for eight cycles.

Primary endpoint was number of patients who were PSA progression-free after one year of therapy.

The researchers found that, after one year of completion of ADT, 45 percent of patients with testosterone levels of at least 100 ng/dL and 29 percent of patients with testosterone levels of at least 240 ng/dL had PSA of less than 0.2 ng/mL.

Additionally, eight patients (20 percent) were free from PSA progression, 19 patients (46 percent) did not reinitiate ADT, and 34 patients (83 percent) were free from metastasis.

However, 16 patients (39 percent) experienced grade 3 and 5 patients (12 percent) experienced grade 4 toxicities.

“Long-term follow-up is needed to determine the percentage of patients with a durable PSA response who are able to avoid having to reinitiate prostate cancer therapy,” the authors concluded.

Reference

1. McKay, R. R., Gray, K. P., Hayes, J. H., Bubley, G. J., Rosenberg, J. E., Hussain, A., Kantoff, P. W. and Taplin, M.-E. (2015), Docetaxel, bevacizumab, and androgen deprivation therapy for biochemical disease recurrence after definitive local therapy for prostate cancer. Cancer. doi: 10.1002/cncr.29398