For Patients with Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer, Abiraterone Delays Disease Progression

the Cancer Therapy Advisor take:

According to updated results published in the journal European Urology, researchers have found abiraterone significantly improves progression-free survival in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) who have not received prior chemotherapy.

For the double-blind, placebo-controlled study, known as COU-AA-302, researchers enrolled 1,088 patients with mCRPC from April 2009 to June 2010. Patients were randomized to receive either abiraterone 1,000 mg plus prednisone 5 mg twice daily orally or prednisone alone.

The researchers followed patients for a median of 27.1 months and found a significantly improvement in progression-free survival in patients treated with abiraterone plus prednisone versus prednisone alone (median: 16.5 vs 8.2 months; HR = 0.52, 95% CI: 0.45-0.61, P < 0.0001).

Abiraterone was found to improve overall survival (35.3 versus 30.1 months), but the finding was not statistically significant. Results also showed that treatment with abiraterone delayed pain and functional deterioration. A favorable safety profile was also observed, even in patients treated with abiraterone for more than 2 years. This study is still ongoing.