7024 Phase Ib dose-finding trial of intravenous (i.v.) panobinostat (PAN) with docetaxel (DOC) and prednisone (PRED) in patients (pts) with castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC)

Recent developments in prostate cancer biomarker research: therapeutic implications

This review aims to present an overview of recent clinical trials targeting biomarkers in advanced prostate cancer. We searched ClinicalTrials.gov for early phase clinical trials on treatments of prostate cancer that have been recently completed, are ongoing or are actively recruiting participants. Drug targets and their mechanism of actions were assessed and summarized. Trials were categorized according to prostate cancer biomarkers that have potential as therapeutic targets. A total of 19 new therapeutic agents for the treatment of prostate cancer are included in this review. Trials are summarized according to the targeted biomarkers and are categorized into five therapeutic approaches: prostate cancer vaccine, epigenetic therapy, pro-apoptotic agents, prostate cancer antibodies and anti-angiogenesis approach. Some of the therapeutic agents reviewed showed promising results, warranting further investigation in late phase clinical trials. Recent novel prostate cancer biomarkers that made it through clinical trials and their relevance as drug targets are summarized. This review emphasizes the importance of specific prostate cancer biomarkers and their potentials as targets of the disease. Some clinical trials of targeted treatments in prostate cancer show promising results. Better understanding of disease mechanisms should potentially lead to more specific treatments for individual patients.

[Histone deacetylase inhibitors: highlight on epigenetic regulation]

HDAC, by modifiing relations between DNA and histones, are major proteins of the epigenetic regulation. They play part in the signal transduction and in many cellular processes: cell cycle control, apoptosis, protein degradation, angiogenesis, invasion and cell motility. In several models of cancer HDAC inhibitors (HDACIs) are able to up regulate tumor suppressing gene (p53, p21, pRB...) and to down regulate oncogenes (SRC, HIF-Ialpha,HER2...). Many inhibitors are currently in clinical development and promising results have been reported in cutaneous T cell lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and non-hodgkin lymphoma. Combination with chemotherapy and molecular targeted agents seem to be effective in myeloma, lung cancer and myeloïd neoplasms. In this review, we focus on recent biologic and clinical data that highlitght the anti-neoplastic role of HDACIs.

Panobinostat (LBH589): a potent pan-deacetylase inhibitor with promising activity against hematologic and solid tumors

The deacetylase inhibitors are a structurally diverse class of targeted antineoplastic agents that have demonstrated in vitro and in vivo preclinical activity in a wide range of malignancies. Based on this preclinical activity, several deacetylase inhibitors have undergone rapid clinical development in recent years. Among these, the deacetylase inhibitor panobinostat is one of the most widely studied, with extensive pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic and dose-finding data available across a wide variety of hematologic and solid tumors. Furthermore, panobinostat has demonstrated favorable clinical activity against various hematologic malignancies, most notably lymphomas and myeloid malignancies in Phase I and II studies. In this article, we discuss the preclinical data on panobinostat and emerging data from Phase I and II studies in cancer patients.