Proton beam radiation therapy for prostate cancer-is the hype (and the cost) justified?

Cost-effectiveness of proton beam therapy for intraocular melanoma

Purpose

Proton beam therapy is a commonly accepted treatment for intraocular melanomas, but the literature is lacking in descriptions of patient preferences of clinical outcomes and economic impact. In addition, no economic evaluations have been published regarding the incremental cost-effectiveness of proton beam therapy compared with enucleation or plaque brachytherapy, typical alternative treatments. We, therefore, conducted a cost-utility analysis of these three approaches for the treatment of intraocular melanomas.

Materials and Methods

A Markov model was constructed. Model parameters were identified from the published literature and publicly available data sources. Cost-effectiveness of each treatment was calculated in 2011 US Dollars per quality-adjusted life-year. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios were calculated assuming enucleation as reference. One-way sensitivity analyses were conducted on all model parameters. A decision threshold of $50,000/quality-adjusted life-year was used to determine cost-effectiveness.

Results

Enucleation had the lowest costs and quality-adjusted life-years, and plaque brachytherapy had the highest costs and quality-adjusted life-years. Compared with enucleation, the base-case incremental cost-effectiveness ratios for plaque brachytherapy and proton beam therapy were $77,500/quality-adjusted life-year and $106,100/quality-adjusted life-year, respectively. Results were highly sensitive to multiple parameters. All three treatments were considered optimal, and even dominant, depending on the values used for sensitive parameters.

Conclusion

Base-case analysis results suggest enucleation to be optimal. However, the optimal choice was not robust to sensitivity analyses and, depending on the assumption, both plaque brachytherapy and proton beam therapy could be considered cost-effective. Future clinical studies should focus on generating further evidence with the greatest parameter uncertainty to inform future cost-effectiveness analyses.

Neuroendocrine differentiation in prostate cancer: a mechanism of radioresistance and treatment failure

Neuroendocrine differentiation (NED) in prostate cancer is a well-recognized phenotypic change by which prostate cancer cells transdifferentiate into neuroendocrine-like (NE-like) cells. NE-like cells lack the expression of androgen receptor and prostate specific antigen, and are resistant to treatments. In addition, NE-like cells secrete peptide hormones and growth factors to support the growth of surrounding tumor cells in a paracrine manner. Accumulated evidence has suggested that NED is associated with disease progression and poor prognosis. The importance of NED in prostate cancer progression and therapeutic response is further supported by the fact that therapeutic agents, including androgen-deprivation therapy, chemotherapeutic agents, and radiotherapy, also induce NED. We will review the work supporting the overall hypothesis that therapy-induced NED is a mechanism of resistance to treatments, as well as discuss the relationship between therapy-induced NED and therapy-induced senescence, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, and cancer stem cells. Furthermore, we will use radiation-induced NED as a model to explore several NED-based targeting strategies for development of novel therapeutics. Finally, we propose future studies that will specifically address therapy-induced NED in the hope that a better treatment regimen for prostate cancer can be developed.

Low temperature plasma: a novel focal therapy for localized prostate cancer?

Despite considerable advances in recent years for the focal treatment of localized prostate cancer, high recurrence rates and detrimental side effects are still a cause for concern. In this review, we compare current focal therapies to a potentially novel approach for the treatment of early onset prostate cancer: low temperature plasma. The rapidly evolving plasma technology has the potential to deliver a wide range of promising medical applications via the delivery of plasma-induced reactive oxygen and nitrogen species. Studies assessing the effect of low temperature plasma on cell lines and xenografts have demonstrated DNA damage leading to apoptosis and reduction in cell viability. However, there have been no studies on prostate cancer, which is an obvious candidate for this novel therapy. We present here the potential of low temperature plasma as a focal therapy for prostate cancer.

Charged particle therapy--optimization, challenges and future directions

The use of charged particle therapy to control tumours non-invasively offers advantages over conventional radiotherapy. Protons and heavy ions deposit energy far more selectively than X-rays, allowing a higher local control of the tumour, a lower probability of damage to healthy tissue, low risk of complications and the chance for a rapid recovery after therapy. Charged particles are also useful for treating tumours located in areas that surround tissues that are radiosensitive and in anatomical sites where surgical access is limited. Current trial outcomes indicate that accelerated ions can potentially replace surgery for radical cancer treatments, which might be beneficial as the success of surgical cancer treatments are largely dependent on the expertise and experience of the surgeon and the location of the tumour. However, to date, only a small number of controlled randomized clinical trials have made comparisons between particle therapy and X-rays. Therefore, although the potential advantages are clear and supported by data, the cost:benefit ratio remains controversial. Research in medical physics and radiobiology is focusing on reducing the costs and increasing the benefits of this treatment.