At present, metastatic and hormonal-refractory prostate cancer patients who have failed 1st line chemotherapy will be given mitoxantrone plus prednisone as the salvage therapy. However, mitoxantrone plus prednisone is not very effective in controlling metastatic prostate cancer. Now, a new drug developed by sanofi-aventis might offer hope to patients who have failed 1st line chemotherapy (docetaxel plus prednisone).
The new drug called cabazitaxel was investigated in the TROPIC trial that included 755 advanced prostate cancer patients who have failed 1st line docetaxel chemotherapy. Half of the patients in the trial received combination of cabazitaxel and prednisone while the other half received mitoxantrone and prednisone.
After one year of treatment, men in the cabazitaxel arm had an overall median survival of 15.1 months, compared to 12.7 months among men in the mitoxantrone arm. Cabazitaxel was also associated with a 30 percent reduced risk of dying.
Like other chemotherapies, cabazitaxel was associated with side-effects such as low white blood cells (81.7%), low white blood cells with fever (7.5%), diarrhea (6.2%) and infections (10.2%).
This drug has not been approved by FDA, but is under the fast track approval process. To participate in clinical trials, you may visit www.clinicaltrials.gov for details.
http://en.sanofi-aventis.com/binaries/20100304_Asco_GU_en_tcm28-27547.pdf
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