Dr. Dreicer on Combination Trials With Radium-223 in mCRPC

Robert Dreicer, MD, associate director for Clinical Research and deputy director of the University of Virginia Cancer Center, discusses the potential of combination regimens involving radium-223 dichloride (Xofigo) in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).

Radium-223 is a very unique agent, as it is one 2 FDA-approved therapies in prostate cancer that is not an androgen receptor-targeted therapy, Dreicer explains. It makes intrinsic sense to target multiple different pathways to treat a disease. Therefore, the idea of combining agents such as abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) and enzalutamide (Xtandi) with radium-223 is an intriguing and appropriate set of studies to do. This is because researchers want to see if they can not only get prolonged responses and progression-free survival with the regimens, but question whether it would be a logical option from an economical perspective.

Before researchers start combining these expensive agents, there needs to be an indication that there is a rationale to do so. The studies are ongoing, however, so this is a good sign, Dreicer concludes.