Inmunotherapy in prostate cancer.

UNLABELLED

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer. Although systemic chemotherapeutic agents, such as cabazitaxel, abiraterone and enzalutamde have become available to patients over the last decade, metastatic PCa is still an incurable disease. Immunotherapy is showing great promise in a wide range of other cancer types. To this day, the only immunotherapy approved by the FDA for PCa is the Sipuleucel-T vaccine, which showed significant clinical efficacy. Multiple clinical studies on immunotherapy in PCa are currently underway.

OBJECTIVES

Recent clinical trials have shown promising results in immunotherapeutic in treatment for PCa. The authors review previous clinical trials, as well as discuss and emphasize important emerging immunotherapies for PCa.

METHODS

Review of the published evidence related to immunotherapy in PCa. PubMed and clinicaltrials.gov databases were used to search for English papers and clinical trials.

RESULTS

Multiple clinical trials are testing different immunotherapeuticagents, as well as combinations thereof. The low grade of toxicity associated with these immunotherapies is an appealing advantage for patients, leading to an increased appreciation of theses types of treatments. Until now, only one clinical trial led to a new immunotherapeutic agent to be FDA approved. Importantphase II/III clinical trials are being conducted, and in the near future the concept of PCa treatment might be re-challenged.

CONCLUSIONS

Many trials are ongoing to determine the effects of immunotherapy in PCa. These studies may harvest important confirmatory data in the next years, with the potential to reshape PCa treatment.