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Updated: May 13, 2026

A Bioluminescent and Fluorescent Orthotopic Syngeneic Murine Model of Androgen-dependent and Castration-resistant Prostate Cancer
07:25

A Bioluminescent and Fluorescent Orthotopic Syngeneic Murine Model of Androgen-dependent and Castration-resistant Prostate Cancer

Published on: March 6, 2018

Immunotherapy and endothelin receptor antagonists for treatment of castration-resistant prostate cancer

Ning Shao1, Yang Wang, Wen Yu Jiang

  • 1Department of Urology, Jiangsu Province Geriatric Hospital, Nanjing, China.

International Journal of Cancer
|March 19, 2013
PubMed

Insights

Immunotherapy significantly improves overall survival in castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). While endothelin receptor antagonists offer modest benefits, neither therapy significantly impacts progression-free survival, though toxicities vary.

Area of Science:

  • Oncology
  • Clinical Pharmacology
  • Evidence-Based Medicine

Background:

  • Castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) presents ongoing treatment challenges.
  • Novel therapies including immunotherapy and endothelin receptor antagonists are emerging.
  • Understanding the efficacy and toxicity of these new treatments is crucial for clinical practice.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To systematically review and meta-analyze the efficacy of immunotherapy and endothelin receptor antagonists in CRPC.
  • To provide a precise estimation of their impact on overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS).
  • To assess the safety profiles and toxicity of these novel therapeutic agents.

Main Methods:

  • Comprehensive literature search of PubMed, published trials, and review articles.
  • Independent data extraction by two reviewers from nine identified randomized controlled trials.
  • Meta-analysis using hazard ratios (HR) for survival outcomes and relative risk (RR) for toxicities, with 95% confidence intervals (CIs).

Main Results:

  • Immunotherapy demonstrated a significant improvement in OS for CRPC patients compared to placebo (HR = 0.70, 95% CI: 0.58-0.83).
  • Endothelin receptor antagonists showed a modest benefit in OS (HR = 0.90, 95% CI: 0.82-1.00).
  • Neither therapy significantly improved PFS or time to disease progression (TTP); toxicities included fatigue/pyrexia for immunotherapy and edema/anemia for endothelin antagonists.

Conclusions:

  • Immunotherapy is an attractive option for CRPC due to acceptable toxicity and improved OS.
  • Endothelin receptor antagonists offer some survival benefit but with specific adverse events.
  • Further research with optimized clinical trial designs is warranted to fully elucidate the role of these therapies.
Keywords:
CRPCendothelin receptor antagonistsimmunotherapy

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