Upfront Chemotherapy for Metastatic Prostate Cancer

Traditionally, androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) has been the standard initial treatment for metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (mHSPC), with chemotherapy utilized in the castration-resistant setting. Data reported from three recent clinical trials shed new light on the role of upfront docetaxel in advanced or mHSPC. Two of these studies-CHAARTED and STAMPEDE-showed significant improvement in overall survival, while the third study, GETUG-AFU 15, showed no statistical difference. The CHAARTED study showed a 13.6-month survival improvement and the STAMPEDE study showed a 10-month survival improvement with ADT plus docetaxel, compared with ADT alone, in the hormone-sensitive setting. These numbers are remarkable when compared with the 2.9-month survival benefit from docetaxel in the metastatic castration-resistant setting, which has been the standard setting for the use of docetaxel in advanced prostate cancer. In this review, we describe the historical data for chemotherapy in the perioperative and metastatic prostate cancer settings, and the recent trials that are changing the paradigm in support of docetaxel in the upfront setting.