Dr. Dreicer on the Goals of the Phase 3 VERACITY Trial With VERU-111 in mCRPC

Robert Dreicer, MD, the deputy director and director of solid tumor oncology, Division of Hematology/Oncology, at The University of Virginia Cancer Center, discusses the goals of the phase 3 VERACITY trial (NCT04844749) with VERU-111 (sabizabulin) in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).

When looking at the agents that are currently available for patients with mCRPC, the armamentarium is increasingly limited as drugs such as abiraterone (Zytiga), enzalutamide (Xtandi), and apalutamide (Erleada) move into the castration-sensitive setting, according to Dreicer. Some agents are even moving earlier, into the non-metastatic CRPC space, he adds.

The number of available agents following progression on several therapies is relatively limited to taxanes, RADIUM-223 (Xofigo), and sipuleucel-T (Provenge), or for DNA damage response and repair mutations, PARP inhibitors can be used.

The androgen receptor remains an important target throughout the disease continuum, Dreiver says. As VERU-111 is a novel, first-in-class agent that has an excellent safety profile, experts in the field hope to introduce a new class of drug that has activity into the clinical space, Dreicer says. As patients have grown accustom to oral androgen receptor inhibitors, another oral, well-tolerated agent available for use upon progression would be an important addition to the space, Dreicer concludes.