Docetaxel for the treatment of prostate cancer

Abstract

Prostate cancer accounts for 12% of male cancer deaths, amounting to almost 10,000 deaths per year in the UK. Patients that develop metastatic disease may have their prostate cancer controlled for approximately 2 years with androgen deprivation but invariably progress to a castrate-independent state and succumb to metastatic disease. The previous experience of cytotoxic chemotherapy in hormone-refractory prostate cancer has yielded modest improvements in quality of life, with mitoxantrone in widest use. However, following encouraging Phase II data, two Phase III trials have demonstrated a survival advantage associated with the use of the synthetic taxoid cytotoxic docetaxel (Taxotere®) over mitoxantrone and prednisolone. Moreover, this treatment was well tolerated. Therefore, docetaxel is set to be the standard by which future interventions are judged and a platform for future trials containing novel molecular therapies.