Purpose: Clusterin (CLU) is an antiapoptotic, stress-induced protein conferring treatment resistance when overexpressed. This study tested custirsen, a CLU inhibitor, in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) progressing during or within 6 months of initial docetaxel therapy.
Patients and methods: Men were randomized to receive either docetaxel + prednisone + custirsen (DPC) or mitoxantrone + prednisone + custirsen (MPC).
Results: Forty-two patients received study treatment. Toxicity was similar in both arms. Twenty patients treated with DPC received a median of 8 cycles; overall survival (OS) was 15.8 months. Median time to pain progression (TTPP) was 10.0 months; 10 of 13 (77%) evaluable patients had pain responses. Three of 13 (23%) evaluable patients had objective partial responses. Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) declines of 90% or more, 50% or more, and 30% or more occurred in 4 (20%), 8 (40%), and 11 (55%) patients, respectively. Twenty-two patients treated with MPC received a median of 6 cycles; OS was 11.5 months. The median TTPP was 5.2 months; 6 of 13 (46%) evaluable patients had pain responses. No objective responses were observed. PSA declines of 50% or more and 30% or more occurred in 6 (27%) and 7 (32%) patients, respectively. Low serum CLU levels during treatment showed superior survival for patients based on modeling with proportional hazard regression with a time-dependent covariate and different landmarks.
Conclusions: Custirsen plus either docetaxel or mitoxantrone was feasible in patients with progressive mCRPC following first-line docetaxel therapy. Pain relief was higher than expected, with interesting correlations between serum CLU and survival. A phase III trial evaluating the pain palliation benefit of custirsen with taxane therapy is ongoing.
©2011 AACR.