Dr. Pal on Sequencing Abiraterone and Enzalutamide in mCRPC

Sumanta Kumar Pal, MD, assistant professor, genitourinary cancers, City of Hope, discusses the results of a retrospective analysis of the effect of prior abiraterone use on the activity level of enzalutamide in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).

The study, which was presented at the 2014 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, retrospectively characterized the activity of abiraterone following enzalutamide and vice versa. Data sets such as this one are important, Pal believes, because they speak to the potential resistance that evolves when a patient receives one drug or another for mCRPC.

Pal says therapeutic sequencing in mCRPC is critical. This study, as well as others, has shown that receiving one drug before another may compromise the efficacy of the second drug.