Cabazitaxel: a guide to its use in hormone-refractory metastatic prostate cancer

New horizons in the management of castrate-resistant prostate cancer

Castrate-resistant prostate cancer is an incurable disease. It continues to be an area of intense research to save prostate cancer patients’ lives. We aim from this review to explore the new lines of treatment that aim at extending disease-specific survival. We conducted a PubMed research on available literature pertaining to key words alone and in combination: prostate cancer, castrate-resistant, immunotherapy, hormonal therapy, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, metastasis, survival and quality of life. We also reviewed the following guidelines on castrate-resistant prostate cancer: National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), American Urological Association (AUA), the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the European Association of Urology (EAU). There are four new lines of treatment in castrate-resistant prostate cancer. An immunotherapy, sipuleucel T (Provenge); new hormonal therapies – in the form of a new androgen receptor blocker, enzalutamide (Xtandi) and new adrenal androgen synthesis inhibitor, abiraterone acetate (Zytiga); a new chemotherapy, cabazitaxel (Jevtana) and new radioactive agent, radium 223 (Xofigo). There is an agreement between guidelines that patients with M0 castrate-resistant prostate cancer should not be offered any of these treatments. Similarly, patients with castrate-resistant prostate cancer and poor performance status should be offered only palliative care. There are several new lines of treatment that can be used in castrate-resistant prostate cancer, and hopefully in the near future castrate-resistant prostate cancer will be changing from a lethal disease to more of a chronic disease.

Pharmaceuticals that contain polycyclic hydrocarbon scaffolds

This review comprehensively explores approved pharmaceutical compounds that contain polycyclic scaffolds and the properties that these skeletons convey.

Abiraterone acetate: a review of its use in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer

Abiraterone acetate (Zytiga(®)) is an orally administered, selective inhibitor of the 17α-hydroxylase and C17,20-lyase enzymatic activities of cytochrome P450 (CYP) 17. CYP17 is required for androgen biosynthesis, with androgen receptor signalling crucial in the progression from primary to metastatic prostate cancer. Abiraterone acetate is approved in the European Union and the US, in combination with prednisone or prednisolone, for the treatment of men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). When administered in combination with prednisone in a placebo-controlled, multinational phase III study, abiraterone acetate significantly prolonged overall survival and radiographic progression-free survival (rPFS) in men with metastatic CRPC who had previously received docetaxel. In men with metastatic CRPC who had not previously received chemotherapy participating in a placebo-controlled, multinational phase III study, there was a strong trend towards an overall survival benefit, a significant prolongation in rPFS and significant delays in clinical decline, the need for chemotherapy and the onset of pain observed. Given the nature of the therapy, the overall tolerability profile of abiraterone acetate, in combination with prednisone, was acceptable in men with metastatic CRPC. Abiraterone acetate is associated with hypokalaemia, hypertension, and fluid retention or oedema, secondary to its mechanism of action, and with cardiac adverse events and hepatotoxicity; however, in the phase III studies the incidences of the most frequently reported grade 3 or 4 adverse events of special interest were relatively low. Although the final overall survival data in men with metastatic CRPC who have not previously received chemotherapy are awaited, current evidence indicates that abiraterone acetate is a useful option for the treatment of metastatic CRPC.

Mechanism of action and clinical activity of tasquinimod in castrate-resistant prostate cancer

Castrate-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) is a disease where survival is poor and treatment is challenging. Over the past 3 years, significant advances in the field have been made with US Food and Drug Administration approval of new drugs for patients with CRPC. However, despite the presence of new approved drugs such as enzalutamide, abiraterone, sipuleucel-T, cabazitaxel, and alpharadin, there is still an unmet need for novel agents with different mechanisms of action to target CRPC. Based on earlier studies demonstrating therapeutic potential of a quinoline-3-carboxamide agent roquinimex as an anticancer drug, efforts were directed to identify other useful members in this class. Tasquinimod is a second-generation quinoline-3-carboxamide agent that is currently in final stages of clinical development as a treatment for CRPC. The preclinical studies of tasquinimod have formed the basis for its success as an antiangiogenic and immunomodulatory agent in this disease. Tasquinimod is an orally available agent that has shown efficacy and favorable safety profile as deduced by the results of Phase I and II clinical trials of this drug in prostate cancer. The place of tasquinimod in the treatment of CRPC patients is currently under examination in an ongoing Phase III clinical trial. In this review, we will discuss tasquinimod, starting from its discovery and current knowledge on potential mechanisms of action to its clinical potential in CRPC.