Dr. Gerritsen on a Study of Alisertib in Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer

Winald Gerritsen, MD, PhD, professor and medical oncologist, Radboud Medical Center, discusses a phase II study that examined the efficacy and safety of alisertib monotherapy in patients with neuroendocrine prostate cancer, an aggressive, androgen-independent subtype of castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Gerritsen explains that the researchers in this study took biopsies from patients who were progressing on different therapies and discovered that, for several of them, their disease was more accurately characterized as neuroendocrine prostate cancer, rather than prostate adenocarcinoma.

The results of the study demonstrated that single-agent alisertib yielded a 6-month progression-free survival rate of 16.3% in patients with pathologically confirmed neuroendocrine prostate cancer. Moreover, 2 patients achieved complete response for liver metastases.

Twenty-three patients experienced grade 3/4 toxicities, the most common of which were neutropenia, gastrointestinal side effects, fatigue, and febrile neutropenia, anemia, and elevated bilirubin.