Dr. Choudhury on Treatment Goals in Nonmetastatic CRPC

Atish D. Choudhury, MD, PhD, co-director of the Prostate Cancer Center and senior physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, as well as an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School, discusses the goal of treating patients with nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC).

Nonmetastatic CRPC is a clinical space that reflects a variety of clinical states, including local recurrence, nodal recurrence, and more diffuse disease, says Choudhury. The agents available for nonmetastatic CRPC have been associated with a benefit in metastasis-free survival and overall survival in patients with a prostate-specific antigen doubling time of 10 months or less. As such, these agents should be utilized in that setting, according to Choudhury.

It is also important to think more broadly about focal therapy, as that approach could also be beneficial to these patients. Additionally, determining how to manage the safety profiles and decrease patient costs is another important area in need of further research. The ultimate goal is to prolong survival while maintaining quality of life to the highest degree possible, concludes Choudhury.