Prostate Cancer: Mortality and Impact of Second-Generation Androgen-Receptor Inhibitors

[eng] Prostate cancer is the second most frequently diagnosed cancer worldwide and the fifth leading cause of cancer death in men. Despite, the above mentioned incidence and mortality, the existence of a small proportion of patients who have indolent prostate cancers has led to the widely held belief...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Rodríguez-Vida Rodríguez, Alejo
Tipo de recurso: tesis doctoral
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
OAI Identifier:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/126886
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/126886
http://hdl.handle.net/10803/664195
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Oncologia
Càncer de pròstata
Mortalitat
Andrògens
Oncology
Prostate cancer
Mortality
Androgens
Descripción
Sumario:[eng] Prostate cancer is the second most frequently diagnosed cancer worldwide and the fifth leading cause of cancer death in men. Despite, the above mentioned incidence and mortality, the existence of a small proportion of patients who have indolent prostate cancers has led to the widely held belief that prostate cancer has low lethality. The widespread use of PSA screening in asymptomatic patients in some countries might partially explain this belief. Overdiagnosis of indolent prostate cancers with PSA screening might have diluted the real mortality rates of more aggressive and advanced prostate cancers. Epidemiological studies analyzing real prostate cancer mortality and causes of death in countries were early PSA screening is uncommon are therefore urgently needed to provide a real picture of the impact of prostate cancer on mortality. Several second-generation androgen receptor pathway inhibitors such as enzalutamide or abiraterone have been successfully tested in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Although the individual efficacy of abiraterone and enzalutamide in prostate cancer is well established, the therapeutic benefit of targeting AR signaling axis by sequential administration of these agents is not clear, since cross-resistance could occur. Similarly, while an antiandrogen withdrawal syndrome (AAWS) has been reported for almost all first-generation antiandrogens such as bicalutamide, there is no evidence of any withdrawal effect with second-generation antiandrogen enzalutamida. The main objectives of this thesis was to investigate mortality and causes of death in men with prostate cancer diagnosed in London (UK) where routine screening testing for PSA amongst asymptomatic men is low; to analyze the antitumour activity of enzalutamide in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer patients previously treated with abiraterone and to examine PSA levels following enzalutamide discontinuation in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer patients, in order to assess whether an AAWS exists with enzalutamida. As main methods, we analyzed prostate cancer mortality on 53.081 men diagnosed with prostate cancer between January 1st 1997 and December 31st 2006 extracted from death certificates from the Thames Cancer Registry (TCR) database. The TCR is a population-based epidemiological registry, covering around 12 million people resident in an area of South East England. The enzalutamida cross-resistance and potential AAWS was analyzed retrospectively in patients with metastatic CRPC treated with enzalutamide in the UK between 2012 and 2013. For the Enzalutamide Cross-Resistance study, we identified 39 patients previously treated with both abiraterone and docetaxel and subsequently treated with enzalutamida. For the Enzalutamide Withdrawal study, we identified patients with evidence of disease progression on enzalutamide for whom at least 1 available PSA post-enzalutamide discontinuation was available. 30 patients were initially identified. A subsequent updated analysis increased the patient sample to 49 patients. The main results of this thesis are that the mortality of prostate cancer remains significant, challenging the traditional belief that prostate cancer is an indolent disease and is not an important cause of death in men. We showed that prostate cancer was the most frequent cause of death in the whole study population as well as in all the subgroups, regardless of age, stage of disease and treatment received. We also showed that the antitumour activity of enzalutamide is significantly reduced when it is given to heavily pre-treated metastatic CRPC patients previously treated with abiraterone acetate. All the efficacy endpoints analyzed in our cohort were significantly poorer compared to the data reported in the AFFIRM pivotal study in abiraterone-naïve patients, including PSA response rates, radiological response rates and survival. This indicates a phenomenon of cross-resistance between these 2 hormonal drugs targeting the AR signaling pathway. Our results also showed for the first time that enzalutamide is associated with an antiandrogen withdrawal syndrome in a minority of patients (2%).