Dr. Yu on the Association of ALP With Outcomes in Patients With mCRPC

Evan Y. Yu, MD, associate professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Oncology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, discusses the association of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) with outcomes in chemotherapy-naïve patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). This analysis was presented at the 2014 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.

In the COU-AA-302 trial, abiraterone plus prednisone was compared with prednisone alone in patients with mCRPC who had not yet received chemotherapy. The survival benefit with abiraterone was determined, but Yu says there remained a need for practical markers for use in the clinic to determine the prognosis for patients receiving abiraterone. There have been prognostic models released, but they are often complex in real life practice.

In the post-hoc analysis, researchers looked at practical markers and confirmed that elevated ALP and PSA at baseline and during treatment increased the risk for adverse clinical outcomes in chemotherapy-naive mCRPC. In addition, an analysis of patients already on treatment was conducted, and a similar conclusion was reached.