Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Prostate cancer

Intermediate efficacy end points to assess modern therapies

Subjects

A retrospective, single institution study of 450 men with biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy included 140 men with androgen deprivation therapy deferred until metastatic disease onset. Metastasis-free survival was an independent predictor of overall survival. This research highlights the need to develop appropriate intermediate end points to expedite prostate cancer treatment.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Schweizer, M. T. et al. Metastasis-free survival is associated with overall survival in men with PSA-recurrent prostate cancer treated with deferred androgen deprivation therapy. Ann. Oncol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/annonc/mdt335.

  2. Smith, M. R. et al. Denosumab and bone-metastasis-free survival in men with castration-resistant prostate cancer: results of a phase 3, randomised, placebo-controlled trial. Lancet 379, 39–46 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Sonpavde, G. & Palapattu, G. S. Neoadjuvant therapy preceding prostatectomy for prostate cancer: rationale and current trials. Expert Rev. Anticancer Ther. 10, 439–450 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Eastham, J. A., Kelly, W. K., Grossfeld, G. D., Small, E. J. & Cancer & Leukemia Group B. Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) 90203: a randomized phase 3 study of radical prostatectomy alone versus estramustine and docetaxel before radical prostatectomy for patients with high-risk localized disease. Urology 62 (Suppl. 1), 55–62 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Antonarakis, E. S. et al. Changes in PSA kinetics predict metastasis-free survival in men with PSA-recurrent prostate cancer treated with nonhormonal agents: combined analysis of 4 phase II trials. Cancer 118, 1533–1542 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Stein, W. D. et al. Tumor regression and growth rates determined in five intramural NCI prostate cancer trials: the growth rate constant as an indicator of therapeutic efficacy. Clin. Cancer Res. 17, 907–917 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Bubley, G. J. et al. Eligibility and response guidelines for phase II clinical trials in androgen-independent prostate cancer: recommendations from the Prostate-Specific Antigen Working Group. J. Clin. Oncol. 17, 3461–3467 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Madan, R. A., Gulley, J. L., Fojo, T. & Dahut, W. L. Therapeutic cancer vaccines in prostate cancer: the paradox of improved survival without changes in time to progression. Oncologist 15, 969–975 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Jadvar, H. et al. Prospective evaluation of 18F-NaF and 18F-FDG PET/CT in detection of occult metastatic disease in biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer. Clin. Nucl. Med. 37, 637–643 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Beer, T. M. et al. Randomized trial of autologous cellular immunotherapy with sipuleucel-T in androgen-dependent prostate cancer. Clin. Cancer Res. 17, 4558–4567 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to James L. Gulley.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Madan, R., Gulley, J. Intermediate efficacy end points to assess modern therapies. Nat Rev Urol 10, 686–687 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrurol.2013.269

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrurol.2013.269

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing