Mar 2, 2022
Dr. Neeraj Agarwal, ASCO Daily News editor-in-chief, and director of the Genitourinary Cancers Program at the University of Utah’s Huntsman Cancer Institute, shares key takeaways from the practice-changing ARASENS trial in mHSPC, featured at the 2022 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.
Transcript:
ASCO Daily News: Hello, and welcome to the ASCO Daily News podcast. I'm Geraldine Carroll, a reporter for the ASCO Daily News. Today in our continuing coverage of the 2022 ASCO Genitourinary (GU) Cancer Symposium. Dr. Neeraj Agarwal, the editor in chief of the ASCO Daily News will share key takeaways from the practice-changing ARASENS trial, which showed promising results in metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer. Dr. Agarwal has no conflicts relating to the topic of this episode and his full disclosures are available in this show notes. Disclosures of all guests on the podcast can be found in our transcripts at asco.org/podcasts.
Dr. Neeraj Agarwal: Hello and welcome to the ASCO Daily News podcast. I'm Dr. Neeraj Agrawal, the director of the Genitourinary Cancers Program and professor of medicine at the University of Utah Huntsman Cancer Institute. Let's discuss the results of the practice-changing ARASENS trial in patients with metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer as presented at the 2022 ASCO GU Symposium. This abstract, Abstract 13, was presented by Dr. Matthew Smith from the Massachusetts General Hospital and Hartford Medical School. ARASENS is a randomized phase 3 trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of darolutamide, a novel hormonal therapy, plus ADT (antiandrogen therapy) plus docetaxel versus placebo plus ADT plus docetaxel in patients with metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer. Randomization was stratified by the extent of disease and alkaline phosphatase levels, below versus upper limit of normal or above. It is important to know that this study only included patients that were eligible for ADT and docetaxel chemotherapy, to begin with. The primary endpoint was overall survival with multiple secondary endpoints, including time to CRPC (castration-resistant prostate cancer), time to pain progression, time to first symptomatic skeletal event, and time to start off the next anti-neoplastic therapy, and safety.
A total of 1,306 patients were randomly assigned to triplet therapy with darolutamide plus ADT plus docetaxel versus placebo plus ADT plus docetaxel. Baseline characteristics were well balanced between the treatment arms. Analysis of the primary endpoint was pre-specified. After, 533 events had occurred results show the primary endpoint of this study was met with a significant improvement in overall survival and a 32.5% reduction in risk of death for patients on the triplet therapy on for darolutamide plus ADT plus docetaxel versus placebo plus ADT plus docetaxel. It is important to know that the triplet therapy improved overall survival, despite 76% of patients in the control arm having received the next life-prolonging therapy. Subgroup analysis indicates consistent benefit across the 3 specified groups.
Secondary endpoints also were favored by the triplet therapy combination over the control arm. While this study offers an additional excellent option for our patients with metastatic cancer-sensitive prostate cancer in older populations, the use of docetaxel may be a significant limitation to this triplet combination. In addition, and importantly, this study did not answer the question of whether adding docetaxel chemotherapy to the ADT plus novel hormonal therapy backbone will also improve survival. With the advent of multiple doublets and triplet combinations in recent years, as we saw in the form of ADT plus enzalutamide ADT plus apalutamide in the recent years, it is very important to find biomarkers that may predict response to these treatment options, which will allow personalization of therapy with that. I would like to conclude this podcast on the ARASENS trial. Thank you very much for your kind attention.
ASCO Daily News: You've been listening to Dr. Neeraj Agarwal of the University of Utah's Huntsman Cancer Institute. Thanks for joining us today. If you're enjoying the content on the podcast, please take a moment to rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts.
Disclosures:
Dr. Neeraj Agarwal:
Consulting or Advisory Role: Pfizer, Medivation/Astellas, Bristol-Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca, Nektar, Lilly, Bayer, Pharmacyclics, Foundation Medicine, Astellas Pharma, Lilly, Exelixis, AstraZeneca, Merck, Novartis, lily, Eisai, Seattle Genetics, EMD Serono, Janssen Oncology, AVEO, Calithera Biosciences, MEI Pharma, Genentech, Astellas Pharma, Foundation Medicine, and Gilead Sciences
Research Funding (Institution): Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Takeda, Pfizer, Exelixis, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Calithera Biosciences, Celldex, Eisai, Genentech, Immunomedics, Janssen, Merck, Lilly, Nektar, ORIC Pharmaceuticals, ORIC Pharmaceuticals, CRISPR therapeutics, and Arvinas
Disclaimer: The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform this is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. Guest statements on the podcast do not express the opinions of ASCO. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement.