We have talked about it many times in past posts, the potential that many believe combination therapy can hold for better treatments for all cancers, including advanced prostate cancer. Combination therapy has made AIDS treatment as successful as it has become and it holds a similar promise for cancer treatment.
An example of this potential comes from a very recent phase II trial combining sipuleucel-T (Provenge) with bevacizumab (Avastin). It was found that this combination significantly increased the PSA doubling time in men with recurrent prostate cancer both after surgical and radiation therapy.
Recently published data from the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center and the University of California, San Francisco found that this combination extended PSA doubling time in the 21 evaluable patients by more than 85%, from 6.9 months before treatment to 12.7 months after treatment (p=.01). In addition, 29% of patients had a more than 200% increase in their PSA doubling time after combination therapy. Furthermore, the therapy led to PSA reductions in nine of 21 evaluable patients, including one patient with a PSA reduction of more than 50% and three patients with PSA reductions of more than 25%.
“These findings support our hypothesis that Provenge may have a significant impact on the progression of patients with recurrent disease after definitive local therapy,” said Mark Frohlich, MD, of Dendreon Corp.
The study appears in the online edition of Cancer (May 30, 2006).
Combination therapy, the wave of the future.
Joel T Nowak, MA, MSW
A very recent trial? Four years ago? What do you define as “recent”?
Could one start this treatment, without any other prior treatments, or do you have to be on some sort of Hormonal Treatment first, have it fail, then move to this combination of drugs.