Treatment options for aggressive-variant prostate cancer are limited, but a subset of patients have had promising long-term responses with a combination of carboplatin plus cabazitaxel chemotherapy, followed by PARP inhibitor maintenance. This novel combination treatment approach was the focus of a phase II randomized trial, and updated data from it is being presented at the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting (Abstract 5008).
In this clinical trial, Ana Aparicio, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, and colleagues investigated the efficacy of adding the anti–PD-1 immunotherapy cetrelimab to this chemotherapy combination, followed by niraparib maintenance. Median follow-up was 20.5 months. Of the 60 randomly assigned patients, the median progression-free survival was 5.6 months for the 30 patients receiving the additional immunotherapy compared with 3.4 months for the 30 patients who did not receive cetrelimab. The median overall survival was 24.3 vs 10.2 months, respectively. These findings highlight the benefit of adding immunotherapy for certain patients and underscore the need for biomarkers to guide future therapies.
Disclosure: For full disclosures of the study authors, visit coi.asco.org.
