The efficacy and safety of cabazitaxel, as compared with an androgen-signaling-targeted inhibitor (abiraterone or enzalutamide), in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who were previously treated with docetaxel and had progression within 12 months while receiving the alternative inhibitor (abiraterone or enzalutamide) are unclear.

We randomly assigned, in a 1:1 ratio, patients who had previously received docetaxel and an androgen-signaling-targeted inhibitor (abiraterone or enzalutamide) to receive cabazitaxel (at a dose of 25 mg per square meter of body-surface area intravenously every 3 weeks, plus prednisone daily and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor) or the other androgen-signaling-targeted inhibitor (either 1000 mg of abiraterone plus prednisone daily or 160 mg of enzalutamide daily). The primary end point was imaging-based progression-free survival. Secondary end points of survival, response, and safety were assessed.

A total of 255 patients underwent randomization. After a median follow-up of 9.2 months, imaging-based progression or death was reported in 95 of 129 patients (73.6%) in the cabazitaxel group, as compared with 101 of 126 patients (80.2%) in the group that received an androgen-signaling-targeted inhibitor (hazard ratio, 0.54; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.40 to 0.73; P<0.001). The median imaging-based progression-free survival was 8.0 months with cabazitaxel and 3.7 months with the androgen-signaling-targeted inhibitor. The median overall survival was 13.6 months with cabazitaxel and 11.0 months with the androgen-signaling-targeted inhibitor (hazard ratio for death, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.46 to 0.89; P = 0.008). The median progression-free survival was 4.4 months with cabazitaxel and 2.7 months with an androgen-signaling-targeted inhibitor (hazard ratio for progression or death, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.40 to 0.68; P<0.001), a prostate-specific antigen response occurred in 35.7% and 13.5% of the patients, respectively (P<0.001), and tumor response was noted in 36.5% and 11.5% (P = 0.004). Adverse events of grade 3 or higher occurred in 56.3% of patients receiving cabazitaxel and in 52.4% of those receiving an androgen-signaling-targeted inhibitor. No new safety signals were observed.

Cabazitaxel significantly improved a number of clinical outcomes, as compared with the androgen-signaling-targeted inhibitor (abiraterone or enzalutamide), in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who had been previously treated with docetaxel and the alternative androgen-signaling-targeted agent (abiraterone or enzalutamide). (Funded by Sanofi; CARD ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02485691.).

The New England journal of medicine. 2019 Sep 30 [Epub ahead of print]

Ronald de Wit, Johann de Bono, Cora N Sternberg, Karim Fizazi, Bertrand Tombal, Christian Wülfing, Gero Kramer, Jean-Christophe Eymard, Aristotelis Bamias, Joan Carles, Roberto Iacovelli, Bohuslav Melichar, Ásgerður Sverrisdóttir, Christine Theodore, Susan Feyerabend, Carole Helissey, Ayse Ozatilgan, Christine Geffriaud-Ricouard, Daniel Castellano, CARD Investigators

From the Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands (R.W.); the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden Hospital, London (J.B.); Englander Institute for Precision Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York (C.N.S.); Institut Gustave Roussy and University of Paris Sud, Villejuif (K.F.), Jean Godinot Institute and Reims Champagne-Ardenne University, Reims (J.-C.E.), Foch Hospital, Suresnes (C.T.), Hôpital d’Instruction des Armées Bégin, Saint Mandé (C.H.), and Sanofi, Europe Medical Oncology, Paris (C.G.-R.) – all in France; Institut de Recherche Clinique, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain, Belgium (B.T.); the Department of Urology, Asklepios Tumorzentrum Hamburg, Asklepios Klinik Altona, Hamburg (C.W.), and Studienpraxis Urologie, Nürtingen (S.F.) – both in Germany; the Medical University of Vienna, Vienna (G.K.); Alexandra Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens (A.B.); Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology, Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona (J.C.); Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Integrata, Verona, and Fondazione Policlinico Agostino Gemelli IRCCS, Rome – both in Italy (R.I.); Palacky University Medical School and Teaching Hospital, Olomouc, Czech Republic (B.M.); Landspitali University Hospital, Reykjavik, Iceland (Á.S.); Sanofi, Global Medical Oncology, Cambridge, MA (A.O.); and 12 de Octubre University Hospital, Madrid (D.C.).

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