Enzalutamide versus Abiraterone Plus Prednisolone for Nonmetastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer: A Sub-Analysis from the ENABLE Study for PCa

Enzalutamide (ENZ) and abiraterone plus prednisolone (ABI) can improve the survival of patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). However, the agent that is more effective against nonmetastatic CRPC remains unclear. To evaluate the agent that can be used as the first-line treatment for CRPC, an investigator-initiated, multicenter, randomized controlled trial (ENABLE Study for PCa) including both metastatic and nonmetastatic CRPC was conducted in Japan. The prostate-specific antigen (PSA) response rate, overall survival, some essential survival endpoints, and safety of patients with nonmetastatic CRPC were also analyzed. In this subanalysis, 15 and 26 patients in the ENZ and ABI arms, respectively, presented with nonmetastatic CRPC. There was no significant difference in terms of the PSA response rate between the ENZ and ABI arms (80% and 64%, respectively; p = 0.3048). The overall survival did not significantly differ between the two arms (HR: 0.68; 95% CI: 0.22-2.14, p = 0.5260). No significant differences were observed in terms of radiographic progression-free survival and cancer-specific survival between the ENZ and ABI arms (HR: 0.81; 95% CI: 0.35-1.84; p = 0.6056 and HR: 0.72; 95% CI: 0.19-2.73; p = 0.6443, respectively). Only four and six patients in the ENZ and ABI arms, respectively, had ≥grade 3 adverse events. ABI and ENZ had similar efficacy and safety profiles in patients with nonmetastatic CRPC.

Enzalutamide versus abiraterone plus prednisolone before chemotherapy for Japanese castration-resistant prostate cancer patients: An investigator-initiated, multicenter, randomized controlled trial

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Background: Enzalutamide and abiraterone plus prednisolone demonstrated improvement of survival for castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). However, it remains quite unclear which agent is better in terms of efficacy and safety for Asian patients. Methods: An investigator-initiated, multicenter, randomized controlled trial was conducted in Japan. CRPC patients before chemotherapy were randomly assigned to the enzalutamide or the abiraterone plus prednisolone arm (1:1). The primary endpoint is time to prostate-specific antigen (PSA) progression and secondary endpoints include PSA response rate (≥50% decline from baseline), overall survival, radiographic progression-free survival, and safety assessment. Results: Between February 20, 2015 and July 30, 2019, 203 patients were enrolled. After randomization, 92 in the enzalutamide and 92 in the abiraterone plus prednisolone arm were treated and analyzed. Time to PSA progression was not significantly different between arms (median 21.2 and 11.9 months in the enzalutamide and the abiraterone plus prednisolone arm, respectively; hazard ration 0.81, 95% CI 0.51-1.27, p = 0.1732). There was a significant difference in PSA response rate between arms (72% and 57% in the enzalutamide and the abiraterone plus prednisolone arm, respectively, p = 0.0425). There were no significant differences in overall and radiographic progression-free survival between arms (median 32.9 and 35.5months in the enzalutamide and the abiraterone plus prednisolone arm, respectively; hazard ration 1.17, 95% CI 0.72-1.88, p = 0.5290 and median 17.6 and 14.0 months in the enzalutamide and the abiraterone plus prednisolone arm, respectively; hazard ration 0.92, 95% CI 0.63-1.34, p = 0.6532). Grade ≥3 of adverse events were observed in 11% and 21% in the enzalutamide and the abiraterone plus prednisolone arm, respectively ( p = 0.1044). Conclusions: Enzalutamide did not show any survival benefits compared with abiraterone plus prednisolone but showed better PSA response rate with no significant differences of severe adverse event rate for Japanese CRPC patients. Our data suggest that antecedent use of enzalutamide to abiraterone plus prednisolone have potentially clinical benefits in Asian CRPC populations. Clinical trial information: UMIN000015529.

Ureterosciatic hernia treated with ureteral stent placement

A 92-year-old female with a history of asthma and chronic heart failure presented with left lumber back pain. Physical examination revealed knocking tenderness at the left costal-vertebral angle. Laboratory test results were within normal limits. Abdominal CT showed a left hydroureteronephrosis and an obstruction in the left distal ureter with herniation into the sciatic foramen. A ureteral stent was inserted into the left ureter and was removed after 2 months. She has not complained of pain or showed symptoms since the removal. Our case suggests that doctors consider the possibility of ureterosciatic hernias when examining older patients complaining of lower back pain.

[Clinical Study on the Efficacy and Continuous Docetaxel Based Chemotherapy Treatment for Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer]

We report a retrospective study on the efficacy, adverse events and the factors for continuous docetaxel (DOC) therapy for patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Between April 2007 and April 2015, 37 CRPC patients were treated with DOC therapy at Kanazawa Medical University Hospital. DOC was administered every 3 weeks at 70 mg/m2. Prostatic specific antigen (PSA) level, adverse events, cycles of DOC therapy, survival time and clinical passage were examined. Fifteen patients showed a decrease in PSA level of 50% or more, 9 patients showed less than 50% decrease in PSA level and 13 patients showed no decrease in PSA level. Adverse effect of grade 3 consisted of neutropenia in 29.7% and leukocytopenia in 10.8%. The median number of treatment cycles was 11.7 courses. The patients were divided into two groups ; the first group comprised of 26 patients who received short-term DOC therapy (≤10 cycles) and the second group comprised of 11 patients who received long-term DOC therapy (≥11 cycles). The 1-year survival rate was 59 and 100% for the short-term and long-term groups, respectively. Long-term treatment was related to pretreatment PSA nadir, time to progression of CRPC and serum lactate dehydrogenase level.

Renal Protective Effects of Erythropoietin on Ischemic Reperfusion Injury

While the problem of organ shortage has not yet been solved, the number of patients who need to be treated with dialysis due to end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is increasing each year. With the aim of eliminating dialytic therapy as much as possible, the opportunities for organ donation from expansive criteria donor (ECD) or marginal donors due to cardiac death have been increasing. With the purpose of extracting organs in a state in which the function is preserved as much as possible, we reexamined the conditions of tissue disorders resulting from temporary ischemia of the organs as well as changes in tissue function and the effects on the preservation of renal function over time by using rat models in order to clinically utilize erythropoietin, which has inhibitory effects on ischemia-reperfusion disorder, as has been conventionally reported. With 8- to 9-week-old Wister male rats, after the right kidney had been resected under general anesthesia, the left renal artery was clamped to inhibit the blood flow for 45 min. At 30 min before inhibiting the blood flow and after releasing the inhibited blood flow, 100 U/kg of recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO) was administered via the inferior vena cava and the abdominal cavity, and then the tissues and blood samples were extracted at 6 and 24 h after the release. The renal tissue specimens were evaluated using H&E staining and TUNEL staining in order to observe differences in the expression of apoptosis as well as the renal function and changes in the emergence of active oxygen were investigated by using samples that had been obtained from drawn blood. Moreover, we examined the degree of renal dysfunction by means of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) in the spot urine samples. The changes in renal function, which were observed according to the serum creatinine level, showed that the renal function was preserved with a significant difference in the rhEPO administration group. The liver deviation enzymes, which had also shown increases in the serum as well as the occurrence of renal dysfunction, showed clear decreases in the serum, even though changes with a significant difference were not observed in the rhEPO administration group. The active oxygen did not show changes before and after ischemia-reperfusion nor changes due to the rhEPO administration. When examining the status of apoptosis in the tissues, apoptosis was shown to be inhibited due to the rhEPO administration. It is believed that the main preservation effects of rhEPO are the elimination of cytopathy/cell death, as derived from the resulting ischemic condition that extends to the target organ before ischemia occurs. In this examination, no direct effects of rhEPO administration on the emergence of active oxygen were observed. It is therefore suggested that there is a possibility of preserving the renal function in marginal donors with a longer agonal stage by effectively using rhEPO.

Malignant epithelioid angiomyolipoma of the kidney in a patient with tuberous sclerosis: an autopsy case report with p53 gene mutation analysis

We report an autopsy case of malignant epithelioid angiomyolipoma in a 36-year-old male tuberous sclerosis patient. He had been diagnosed to have a bilateral renal tumor 20 years previously. The left kidney had been surgically resected at the age of 34, and the left renal tumor was pathologically diagnosed as classic angiomyolipoma and epithelioid angiomyolipoma. He suddenly died of cardiac arrest, and at autopsy the right kidney weighed 7120 g. The tumor presented with massive necrosis invading the inferior vena cava, but was not hemorrhagic. Microscopic examination revealed tumor cells varying in size with a predominantly solid proliferation pattern and marked atypical large cells with vesicular nuclei and abundant eosinophilic cytoplasm. Mitotic figures were often encountered, and atypical forms were also present. Metastatic lesions were identified in the right lung, liver, diaphragm, and mesentery. Immunohistochemical examination showed epithelioid angiomyolipoma cells that were focally reactive for HMB-45 and showed diffuse positive staining for Melan-A. No mutation was detected in the p53 gene by polymerase chain reaction-single-strand conformation polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) analysis despite diffuse immunoreactivity for p53. This case was proven to be malignant because of the occurrence of distant metastases, and showed that p53 mutations are not always associated with malignant transformation in epithelioid angiomyolipoma.

[Prophylaxis of recurrence in superficial bladder carcinoma by intravesical chemotherapy--comparative study between instillation of combined double anticancer agents and single anticancer agent]

We performed a study to compare the usefulness of double or single anticancer agents in the prophylactic treatment after the transurethral resection (TUR) of superficial bladder cancer. We experienced 127 superficial bladder cancer cases. Of these cases, 42 were treated with intravesical adriamycin (ADR) and peplomycin (PEP), 56 with ADR, PEP, epirubicin (epi-ADR) or pirarubicin (THP) only, and the remaining 29 with TUR only. Nonrecurrence rates were significantly higher in the intravesical treated cases than in the cases with TUR only, and also significantly higher in the cases treated with ADR and PEP than the other treated cases. We concluded that intravesical chemotherapy with combined agents was more effective than with a single agent.