Dr. Saad Discusses the Benefit of Radium-223 in Patients with mCRPC

Fred Saad, MD, FRCS, professor, Department of Surgery, University of Montreal, discusses the benefit of radium-223 for the treatment of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).

Saad says the full benefit is a 30% reduction risk of death; he and his colleagues realized that patients who were not able to receive the full 6 cycles seemed to benefit less. He adds that PSA is not a good reflection of activity, while alkaline phosphatase seems to be a much better marker of response activity. Patients who are given a lower dose of alkaline phosphatase have a significantly better survival than those who are not, so a follow-up for patients receiving the radium-223 is recommended.

One of the next steps for future trials would be to confirm the added benefit of combining the agent with other therapies, such as abiraterone and enzalutamide, concludes Saad.