Serum Markers as predictors for treatment benefit in castration-resistant prostate cancer

While most prostate cancer patients initially respond to androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT), they will develop castration-resistance leading to progressing to castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Different treatment options are available for CRPC, including androgen receptor pathway inhibitors (ARPIs) and docetaxel (DOC). As tissue samples are difficult to access at this stage, blood-based analyses offer a more feasible approach. Therefore, we examined whether serum markers could potentially support treatment decisions in CRPC.

Overall survival (OS) was examined in 208 CRPC patients treated with either ARPIs or DOC. Serum markers were chosen to reflect relevant tumor properties: serum thymidine kinase 1 (sTK1) as a proliferation-associated marker, TPS (tissue polypeptide specific antigen) as an epithelial marker, and prostate-specific antigen (PSA).

A median OS (mOS) time of 19.6 (IQR: 9.5-35.4) months was observed for the whole cohort. Patients with sTK1^high/TPS^high levels treated with ARPIs showed a mOS time of 6.8 (IQR: 4.2-9.5) months, compared to 14.6 (IQR: 8.7-48.9) months for patients receiving DOC (P = 0.024). Patients with sTK1^low and/or TPS^low levels showed similar mOS times irrespective of treatment. Combinations of sTK1 and TPS with PSA yielded similar findings for ARPI-treated patients and longer OS in DOC-treated patients.

This study introduces the concept of identifying proliferating carcinomas using a combination of the serum biomarkers sTK1 and TPS. The results suggest that sTK1^high/TPS^high CRPC patients derive more benefit from DOC, consistent with known mechanisms of drug action. Further randomized studies will be required to prove the therapy-predictive value of these tumor markers in CRPC.