Dr. McKay on a Real-World Analysis of Radium-223 in mCRPC

Rana R. McKay, MD, assistant professor of medicine and medical oncologist at the University of California, San Diego, discusses the results of a real-world analysis of radium-223 (Xofigo) in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).

The trial enrolled 220 patients with mCRPC who received at least 1 dose of radium-223 between 2013 and 2017 and did not have visceral metastases when radium-223 was started. Moreover, 63 patients received radium-223 prior to chemotherapy, 83 patients received radium-223 after chemotherapy, and 73 patients did not receive any chemotherapy.

Radium-223 is typically given intravenously every 4 weeks for up to 6 cycles. The mean number of injections patients received in the pre-chemotherapy group was 5.3 compared with 4.3 in the post-chemotherapy group. Additionally, patients in the pre- and post-chemotherapy cohorts received an average of 9.0 and 9.2 cycles of chemotherapy, respectively.

These findings suggest that administering radium-223 prior to chemotherapy is associated with an increased likelihood of completing the full course of treatment without limiting the administration of subsequent chemotherapy, concludes McKay.