Castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC): state of the art, perspectives and new challenges

Abstract

The rapid approval of several novel agents has given prostate cancer patients and their treating physicians many new and effective therapeutic options. Four new medical therapies were recently approved on the basis of prolonged overall survival in castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) patients: sipuleucel-T, cabazitaxel, abiraterone acetate and MDV3100. Additionally, there are several other promising prostate cancer agents in late-stage development, including PROSTVAC-VF, orteronel and radium-223 chloride, each with a novel mechanism of action. The treatment paradigm for these patients is rapidly evolving, with future study needed to define the optimal sequencing and potential combinations of these new agents. In this review, we discuss the recent progress in understanding the biology of this disease and examining the development of a variety of new agents with promising activity and a favorable toxicity profile, that have been investigated in the setting of hormonal, cytotoxic, immune and targeted therapy. In this new therapeutic setting of CRPC, clinicians will have an opportunity to balance benefits and harms of these new agents in an individual context.