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.

  • Practice Point
  • Published:

What is the current status of second-line chemotherapy for castration-resistant prostate cancer?

Nature Clinical Practice Urology volume 5, pages 650–651 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) who show progression of disease after first-line chemotherapy with docetaxel have few proven treatment options. Mitoxantrone plus prednisone is frequently used in this setting. The retrospective analysis by Berthold et al. of mitoxantrone after first-line docetaxel in patients with CRPC suggests that mitoxantrone has a modest level of activity in this setting, with a second-line PSA response rate of 15% and a median time to PSA progression of 3.2 months. Patients with CRPC treated with docetaxel after progression on first-line mitoxantrone had a PSA response rate of 28% and a median time to PSA progression of 5.9 months. In this analysis, median survival of patients was 10 months and did not differ according to choice of first-line agent. Mitoxantrone therapy can be considered in select patients after failure of first-line docetaxel, and vice versa. Other cytotoxic agents such as carboplatin might have a limited role in this patient population. In general, patients with CRPC should be directed towards clinical trials, when available.

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

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

Access options

Access through your institution

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

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

References

  1. Berthold DR et al. (2008) Survival and PSA response of patients in the TAX 327 study who crossed over to receive docetaxel after mitoxantrone or vice versa. Ann Oncol 19: 1749–1753

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Berthold DR et al. (2008) Docetaxel plus prednisone or mitoxantrone plus prednisone for advanced prostate cancer: updated survival in the TAX 327 study. J Clin Oncol 26: 242–245

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Rosenberg JE et al. (2007) Activity of second-line chemotherapy in docetaxel-refractory hormone-refractory prostate cancer patients. Cancer 110: 556–563

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Michels J et al. (2006) First- and second-line chemotherapy with docetaxel or mitoxantrone in patients with hormone-refractory prostate cancer: does sequence matter? Cancer 106: 1041–1046

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Oh WK et al. (2006) Response to second-line chemotherapy in patients with hormone refractory prostate cancer receiving two sequences of mitoxantrone and taxanes. Urology 67: 1235–1240

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Joshua AM et al. (2005) Weekly docetaxel as second line treatment after mitozantrone for androgen-independent prostate cancer. Intern Med J 35: 468–472

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Sartor AO et al. (2008) Satraplatin in patients with advanced hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC): overall survival (OS) results from the phase III satraplatin and prednisone against refractory cancer (SPARC) trial [abstract]. J Clin Oncol 26 (Suppl 15): a5003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Ross RW et al. (2008) A phase 2 study of carboplatin plus docetaxel in men with metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer who are refractory to docetaxel. Cancer 112: 521–526

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. JE Rosenberg is Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and an Oncologist at the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, and WK Oh is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Clinical Director of the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA.,

    Jonathan E Rosenberg & William K Oh

Authors
  1. Jonathan E Rosenberg
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  2. William K Oh
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jonathan E Rosenberg.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

WK Oh has declared that he has received speakers honoraria from sanofi-aventis, and grant/research support from sanofi-aventis and Genentech. JE Rosenberg declared no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Rosenberg, J., Oh, W. What is the current status of second-line chemotherapy for castration-resistant prostate cancer?. Nat Rev Urol 5, 650–651 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncpuro1232

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncpuro1232

Search

Advanced 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