Marketing Authorisation Application Submitted For Apalutamide to Treat Patients with High-Risk Non-Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer

TRUCKEE, CA (UroToday.com) Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson today announced that it has submitted a Marketing Authorisation Application to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for apalutamide, an investigational, next generation oral androgen receptor (AR) inhibitor for the treatment of patients with high-risk non-metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (nmCRPC).

The submission is based on data from the pivotal SPARTAN Phase 3 clinical trial which assessed the safety and efficacy of apalutamide versus placebo in men with nmCRPC who have a rapidly rising prostate specific antigen (PSA) level, despite receiving continuous androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). The SPARTAN clinical trial showed a significantly decreased risk of distant metastasis or death (definition of the primary endpoint, metastasis free survival) by 72 percent, compared to placebo in combination with ADT (HR = 0.28; 95% CI, 0.23-0.35; P < 0.0001) and improved median metastasis-free survival (MFS) by over two years (difference of 24.3 months) in patients with nmCRPC whose PSA is rapidly rising. The results were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Genitourinary Cancers Symposium (ASCO GU) in San Francisco (Abstract 161). Study findings were simultaneously published in The New England Journal of Medicine
“The results of the SPARTAN trial are the first to show that metastases can be delayed in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer, suggesting that apalutamide could become a new standard of care for patients with high-risk non-metastatic CRPC,” said Dr Simon Chowdhury, Consultant Medical Oncologist, Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals, and a SPARTAN study investigator
READ: Dr. Philip Kantoff's discussion on SPARATAN Data at ASCO GU 2018