New drug development in metastatic prostate cancer

In 2007, drug development in castration-resistant metastatic prostate cancer (CRPC) remains challenging, due to the number of potentially viable molecular targets and clinical trials available, the lack of established surrogates for overall survival, and competing causes of mortality. This review will highlight the highest impact phase II and phase III trials of novel agents in the current CRPC landscape, and focus on both molecular targets and clinical trial designs that are more likely to demonstrate clinical benefit. The need for tissue correlative studies for target evaluation and drug mechanism is stressed to continue to advance the field and to define biomarkers that may identify patient populations that may derive a greater benefit from these molecular agents.