Dr. Abida on Choosing Between Chemotherapy and Targeted Agents for Patients With Prostate Cancer

Wassim Abida, MD, PhD, assistant member and assistant attending physician in the Genitourinary Oncology Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses treatment options for patients with prostate cancer.

Early chemotherapy is effective and beneficial for patients with a lot of metastatic burden. However, it less clear that it is the best option for patients with low-volume disease. Many experts believe it is, but there are still unanswered questions, says Abida.

Another question that remains is whether therapies can be selected based on tumor characteristics. That is an area of a lot of ongoing research.

A lot has been discovered about the biology of tumors recently, says Abida. There is a lot of work looking at sequencing DNA from tumors in patients with prostate cancer and researchers will have to determine how to apply these findings in the clinic. Research is confirming the findings from the biologic studies in the lab and taking that to the clinic and learning which patients may benefit from certain therapies.