Radical prostatectomy (RP) alone is often inadequate in curing men with clinically localized, high-risk prostate cancer (PC). We hypothesized that chemohormonal therapy (CHT) with androgen-deprivation therapy plus docetaxel before RP would improve biochemical progression-free survival (BPFS) over RP alone.
Men with clinically localized, high-risk PC were assigned to RP alone or neoadjuvant CHT with androgen deprivation plus docetaxel (75 mg/m2 body surface area every 3 weeks for 6 cycles) and RP. The primary end point was 3-year BPFS. Biochemical failure was defined as a serum prostate-specific antigen level > 0.2 ng/mL that increased on 2 consecutive occasions that were at least 3 months apart. Secondary end points included 5-year BPFS, overall BPFS, local recurrence, metastasis-free survival (MFS), PC-specific mortality, and overall survival (OS).
In total, 788 men were randomly assigned. Median follow-up time was 6.1 years. The overall rates of grade 3 and 4 adverse events during chemotherapy were 26% and 19%, respectively. No difference was seen in 3-year BPFS between neoadjuvant CHT plus RP and RP alone (0.89 v 0.84, respectively; 95% CI for the difference, -0.01 to 0.11; P = .11). Neoadjuvant CHT was associated with improved overall BPFS (hazard ratio [HR], 0.69; 95% CI, 0.48 to 0.99), improved MFS (HR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.51 to 0.95), and improved OS (HR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.40 to 0.94) compared with RP alone.
The primary study end point, 3-year BPFS, was not met. Although some improvement was seen in secondary end points, any potential benefit must be weighed against toxicity. Our data do not support the routine use of neoadjuvant CHT and RP in patients with clinically localized, high-risk PC at this time.
Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. 2020 Jul 24 [Epub ahead of print]
James A Eastham, Glenn Heller, Susan Halabi, J Paul Monk, Himisha Beltran, Martin Gleave, Christopher P Evans, Steven K Clinton, Russell Z Szmulewitz, Jonathan Coleman, David W Hillman, Colleen R Watt, Saby George, Martin G Sanda, Olwen M Hahn, Mary-Ellen Taplin, J Kellogg Parsons, James L Mohler, Eric J Small, Michael J Morris
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY., Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Duke University, Durham, NC., The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, The James Cancer Hospital, Columbus, OH., Dana-Farber/Partners CancerCare, Boston, MA., University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada., University of California, Davis, Sacramento, CA., University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center, Chicago, IL., Alliance Statistics and Data Center, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN., Alliance Protocol Operations Office, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL., Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, NY., Emory University, Atlanta, GA., University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA., University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center-Mount Zion, San Francisco, CA.