Introduction: Androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) is the main therapy for patients with advanced and metastatic prostate cancer (PCa) and, in combination with radiotherapy, for patients with localized high-risk PCa. Due to its favorable tolerability among different treatments available for ADT, leuprorelin acetate is well established as the leading luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) analog. The development of second-generation leuprorelin acetate (LA) depot formulation (Eligard®, Recordati S.p.A) allowed a consistent and controlled release of leuprorelin between injections and a more efficient reduction of testosterone levels with respect to conventional LHRH agonists.
Areas covered: This work provides a summary of the biological and clinical rationale for using LA to manage PCa and presents the current evidence about the therapeutic activity of the LA gel depot formulation, used as an advanced leuprorelin acetate delivery method.
Expert opinion: Results of the registration studies and post-marketing clinical trials demonstrate that the LA gel depot provides long-term efficacy in the clinical practice and a good degree of tolerability. Overall, collected data suggest that the LA gel depot can represent the ADT reference therapy in advanced PCa.
Keywords: Prostate cancer; androgen deprivation therapy; leuprorelin acetate; luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonist; testosterone.