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Urological cancer

Abiraterone and its place in the treatment of metastatic CRPC

An update of the COU-AA-301 study confirms a survival advantage with abiraterone–prednisone compared to prednisone in post-docetaxel patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. We place these data in the context of earlier disease states and other novel agents and explore practical issues concerning the future use of abiraterone.

Key Points

The most recent update of the COU-AA-301 trial dataset confirms the benefit of abiraterone in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who have previously received docetaxel—the challenge that lies ahead is positioning the drug appropriately in an increasingly complex treatment paradigm.

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Correspondence to Oliver Sartor.

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Competing interests

O. Sartor acts as a consultant for Algeta, Amgen, Bavarian-Nordic, Bayer, Bellicum, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene, Dendreon, Exelixis, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Medivation, OncoGeneX, Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis and Takeda. In addition, he receives research funding from Algeta, Bayer, Exelixis, Dendreon, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi-Aventis and Takeda. S. K. Pal receives honoraria from Astellas, Novartis, Pfizer and Sanofi-Aventis. He acts as a consultant for Allos, Aveo, Genentech, Novartis and Sanofi-Aventis, and received research funding from GlaxoSmithKline.

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Sartor, O., Pal, S. Abiraterone and its place in the treatment of metastatic CRPC. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 10, 6–8 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2012.202

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