Dr. Kantoff on Docetaxel Plus Androgen Deprivation Therapy in Prostate Cancer

Philip W. Kantoff, MD, chair of the Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a 2014 Giants of Cancer Care winner for Genitourinary Cancer, discusses the combination of docetaxel (Taxotere) chemotherapy and androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) in the setting of metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer.

Considering the positive results in overall survival from the CHAARTED and STAMPEDE trials, which combined ADT with docetaxel, the next step became determining which patients would benefit from this combination.

Kantoff concludes that hormone-sensitive patients with high-volume metastatic disease and newly-diagnosed patients with de novo metastatic disease would benefit and should be treated with the combination.

Biologically, the question remains of why docetaxel is more effective in hormone-sensitive patients with high-volume metastatic disease. According to Kantoff, biomarkers must be found to answer this question and determine the sensitivity to docetaxel in hormone-sensitive disease.