Dr. Hamid on the Exploration of Predictive Biomarkers in mHSPC Subtypes

Anis Hamid, MBBS, genitourinary oncology research fellow, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the hypothesis of predictive biomarkers for newly diagnosed metastatic hormone sensitive prostate cancer (mHSPC).

A correlative study of gene expression profiling data from the phase III CHAARTED trial identified varying benefits with numerous treatment strategies in patients with different subtypes of mHSPC. Results from the analysis suggest that this variance could provide the potential for tailoring treatment to a patient’s disease subtype.

The analysis has generated a lot of hypotheses and excitement in the space. The critical next steps for this research is to validate the findings in independent cohorts, says Hamid. When biomarkers are developed to choose or tailor therapies more precisely for patients, it’s crucial to select markers that have been proven and are reproducible independently, adds Hamid.

To this end, the study investigators have collaborated with other research groups who have worked on clinical trials that have run similar investigations in this disease space to perform similar RNA analyses to evaluate this hypothesis again, says Hamid. Although it is not quite ready for prime time, it is providing some initial insights into the biology of the disease.

Investigators want to further explore the disease biology, says Hamid. To this end, they have made some classifications about responses correlating with luminal or basal subtypes. However, more insight into other biological programs and other correlations in place are needed to better understand the chemotherapy sensitivity or insensitivity of these disease subtypes, concludes Hamid.