Chemo may be preferred option for some with advanced prostate cancer

the Oncology Nurse Advisor take:

According to the results of a small clinical trial published online in JAMA Oncology, researchers from Johns Hopkins' Kimmel Cancer Center and James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, have found that men with advanced prostate cancer who possess the androgen receptor splice variant-7 (AR-V7) respond just as well to chemotherapy as those who lack AR-V7.

The AR-V7 gene variant has been shown to confer resistance to enzalutamide or abiraterone, two hormonal drugs used to treated castration-resistant prostate cancer; however, the study found that patients with the variant respond similarly to docetaxel or cabazitaxel compared with those without the gene variant.

"Our study shows that men who have the AR-V7 gene variant and usually don't respond to either abiraterone or enzalutamide, are not at a disadvantage when given chemotherapy drugs," says Emmanuel Antonarakis, M.D., an oncologist at the Kimmel Cancer Center.

The researchers are currently working to develop and validate a test to detect AR-V7 in patients with advanced prostate cancer to better inform treatment decisions.