旧的药物改善Survi的新组合val in Patients With Prostate Cancer: Day 3 of the European Society for Medical Oncology’s 2021 Congress

Combining well-known drugs in new ways increases survival in men with hormone- or castration-sensitive前列腺cancer, according to the results of two late-breaking studies presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2021. The PEACE-1 and STAMPEDE clinical trials found that addingZytiga (abiraterone)to standard therapy lengthened survival compared with standard therapy alone.

PEACE-1 Trial: Survival Improves When Men With Metastatic Prostate Cancer Receive Abiraterone Plus Standard Care

What’s newMen with metastatic前列腺癌were 25 percent less likely to die when they received the next-generation hormonal agentZytigaplus standard care. PEACE-1 found that using three drugs up front — androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) plus泰索帝(医生etaxel)plus Zytiga — is better than just two drugs in men with metastatic prostate cancer. The triple combination delayed cancer progression and prolonged life, according to investigators at ESMO Congress 2021.

Study detailsIn the PEACE-1 study, researchers randomly assigned 1,173 men who had newly diagnosed, untreated metastatic prostate cancer to receive either all three drugs or ADT plus docetaxel plus placebo. The median follow-up is 4.4 years and will continue. Those in the standard care group had disease progression after a median 1.6 years. Men who also received Zytiga did not have disease progression for a median 4.1 years. In the overall trial population, men in the standard care group survived for a median 4.4 years. The median overall survival has not yet been reached in the Zytiga group.

Why it mattersADT has long been the standard of care in metastatic prostate cancer. In 2015, researchers showed that adding the chemotherapy drug Taxotere to ADT increased survival, which changed the standard of care. In 2017, doctors learned that Zytiga plus ADT also improved survival. But which combination benefits patients more?

Doctors needed a large phase 3 trial designed to test treatment regimens head-to-head to answer that question. PEACE-1 provides that answer. What’s more, it focuses on readily available treatments, which can speed acceptance among oncologists, said an author of the study,Karim Fizazi, MD, of the Institute Gustave Roussy in Villejuif, France: “By 2022, all three treatments will be generic drugs, which should improve access for patients worldwide.”

Dr. Fizazi also pointed out that the triple treatment used in PEACE-1 gave patients 2.5 additional years without cancer progression and approximately 18 additional months of life. “For the first time these men can expect to live more than five years, whereas before 2015 their median survival was less than three years,” he said.

STAMPEDE Trial: Add Abiraterone for 2 Years to Increase Survival in Nonmetastatic Prostate Cancer

What’s newMen with high-risk nonmetastatic prostate cancer saw their risk of death from their disease reduced by about half when doctors added two years of the hormone therapy Zytiga (abiraterone) to their treatment. These study results from ESMO Congress 2021 are expected to change the standard of care for men with nonmetastatic prostate cancer.

Study detailsInvestigators from STAMPEDE, a long-running United Kingdom–based clinical trial focused on prostate cancer, released a new analysis of their data designed to answer the question, “Can Zytiga extend the life of men with nonmetastatic prostate cancer that is at high risk of spreading?” The main STAMPEDEresults were first published in theNew England Journal of Medicinein 2017. In the current analysis, researchers randomly assigned 1,974 men who had localized prostate cancer to receive standard care with or without Zytiga. The patients received care at one of 113 sites in the UK or Switzerland. Six-year survival improved from 77 percent for patients who did not receive Zytiga to 86 percent in those who did. And six-year survival improved from 85 percent in the standard of care group to 93 percent of those who received Zytiga.

Why it matters“The majority of men who die from prostate cancer in Europe and North America had nonmetastatic disease at diagnosis,” said the study author Gerhardt Attard, MD, of University College London. “And approximately 20 percent of localized前列腺癌sare high-risk at diagnosis but account for the majority of relapses and consequently deaths in this population, so we have a pressing need to understand the efficacy of additionalhormone treatment在非转移人群中。”尽管已显示Zytiga受益于转移性疾病的男性，但直到现在，尚无数据支持其在非转移性前列腺癌中的使用。

COVID-19 Vaccination Is Safe and Effective for People With Cancer

What’s newA significant majority ofpeople with cancerwho received two injections of Moderna’s疫苗againstCOVID-19generated a protective immune response to vaccination. These people did not experience any more side effects than expected in the general population.

Study detailsThe VOICE study enrolled nearly 800 patients from multiple hospitals in the Netherlands. The researchers recruited three groups of patients with cancer: those treated with immunotherapy, those treated with chemotherapy, and those treated with chemotherapy plus immunotherapy. They also recruited a control group made up of the partners of patients in the three other groups. The researchers’ goal was to measure patients’ responses to Moderna’s two-dose mRNA vaccine. At 28 days after the second dose, 84 percent of the chemotherapy group had adequate levels of antibodies to the virus in their blood. The responses in the other cancer groups were even more impressive: 89 percent of the patients in the combination therapy group and 93 percent of patients on immunotherapy alone had good immune responses. “It’s important to note that a significant minority of patients did not develop an adequate antibody response,” said the study author Sjoukje Oosting, MD, PhD, of the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands. “And only one-third of the patients had an adequate antibody response after one vaccination.”

Why it mattersPeople with cancer were excluded from the clinical trials used to develop theCOVID-19疫苗。这意味着直到现在，医生才知道疫苗在这个脆弱人群中是否安全。他们也不知道该疫苗是否会提供足够的保护，以防止严重形式的Covid-19。这些研究结果应保证癌症患者COVID-19疫苗对他们的安全。