Dr. Kantoff on Evolving Role of Docetaxel in Prostate Cancer Treatment

Philip W. Kantoff, MD, chairman of Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a 2014 Giants of Cancer Care winner for Genitourinary Cancer, discusses the role that chemotherapy treatment with docetaxel will continue to have in patients with prostate cancer. Kantoff shared this insight in an interview during the 2016 OncLive State of the Science Summit on Genitourinary Cancers.

While immunotherapy agents and other novel therapies are being studied to advance outcomes in the field of prostate cancer, there continues to be a role for docetaxel for select patients with metastatic disease, Kantoff explains.

Docetaxel has had more of a modest role in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostant cancer, as it has only improved survival by approximately 2 to 3 months, he explains. However, it is said to have much more of a substantial and profound benefit in patients with hormone-sensitive metastatic prostate cancer. The survival improvements observed with docetaxel, he adds, are much longer than survival curves seen with other agents in this patient population. Therefore, it remains to be a significant component of the current armamentarium for these patients.

However, whether chemotherapy will remain in the treatment landscape in the next 5 to 20 years, he says, is to be determined.