Systemic strategies for prostate cancer

Systemic therapy beyond hormonal therapy for advanced prostate cancer includes chemotherapy, antiangiogenic therapy, signal transduction inhibitors, immunomodulatory therapy, and other experimental therapeutics. This review will discuss the state of systemic therapy for advanced prostate cancer in 2007, with an emphasis on therapy in the neoadjuvant, adjuvant, and metastatic setting. As chemotherapy gains greater acceptance in the urologic oncology community for use in men with hormone-refractory disease, evaluating the role of systemic therapy in earlier disease states is essential given the success in other solid tumors for advancing cure rates. Current randomized phase III trials worldwide are addressing these questions in each disease state, and are anticipated to change the landscape of prostate cancer management for years to come. In this discussion, we will emphasize those agents that are currently being evaluated in phase II and III trials, with an emphasis on those trials that are likely to impact the standard of care in the near future. The collection of tumor or surrogate tissue is emphasized to define biomarkers that may predict for sensitivity to these systemic therapies.