Dr. Araujo on Importance of Bone-Targeting Agents in mCRPC

John C. Araujo, MD, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Genitourinary Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the importance of bone-targeting agents for the treatment of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). Araujo shared this insight during the 2017 OncLive^® State of the Science Summit on Genitourinary Cancers.

The greatest morbidity and mortaility from prostate cancer is from metastatic disease to bone, Araujo explains. The current agents available that do target the bone decrease the number of skeletal-related events (SREs), including fractures, spinal cord compression, and increase in pain. Two of these agents, zoledronic acid and denosaumab, do decrease the number of SREs, but are not associated with an improvement in survival.

However, radium-223 dichloride (Xofigo), another targeted agent approved for these patients, does decrease the number of SREs as well as improve overall survival, Araujo says.